Klarinet Archive - Posting 000157.txt from 2005/08

From: Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Ah, ligatures....Gold vs. Silver
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 13:27:15 -0400

Jacob,

I won't touch the gold vs. silver debate, even with a 10 foot pole (gold
*or* silver plated).

I will say that my experience with the Harrison ligatures is that they
break in exactly the manner you describe and I suspect it is a design flaw
. A quick Google search on "harrison ligatures" seems to confirm this was a
common problem. I do not believe they are sold anymore, although it
appears Rico is selling something called the H series ligatures which are
marketed as "retro" versions of the Harrison (I rhetorically wonder whether
retro is better or worse than vintage!).

Personally, I like the price performance of the Bonade inverted ligatures.
The Vandoren Optimum ligatures are nice, too, but a little pricey for my
tastes.

Best of luck,

-Adam

At 12:50 PM 8/11/2005, Jacob Boyle wrote:
>I'm currently using a silver Harrison ligature I found
>in a high school band room I was helping out at. They
>had evidently been sent some sort of 'trial' package
>awhile back that consisted of one gold and one silver
>plated Harrison clarinet ligature. I tried the gold
>and found it to be favorable over the silver: warmer
>tone, and better response, I thought. But it was a
>bit too large for my Selmer C85 mouthpiece and when
>I'd tighten it, the screw housings would meet before
>it was sufficiently tight around the mpc./reed. I
>consequently had to push it lower on my mouthpiece
>than I personally prefer. Anyway, long story short,
>one day I got a little over-zealous in my tightening
>and the poor thing snapped at one corner of the "X"
>(or "H", I suppose). So I switched to the silver one
>(and am being more careful needless to say) and am
>enjoying it equally as much. So my questions are,
>what can I do to prevent this lig from going through
>the same warpage and caused the demise of the previous
>one (my prof suggested filing down the screw housings
>so they don't meet when tightened) and what are some
>characteristics others have observed between gold and
>silver plated ligatures? I'm specifically considering
>buying a BG Classic and would love to hear peoples
>opinions. Thanks everyone!

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