 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2005-06-27 13:51
I've been curious about Legere reeds. Since I double quite a bit, it's been my dream to have a synthetic reed that can be reasonably close to my favorite cane. So, over the weekend I picked up a selection of Legere reeds in different strengths and gave them a good work out. First impressions are that Legere does not have as vibrant of a sound as my cane reeds. However, it's not a bad sound by any means....and Legere is growing on me. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do at a big band gig.
Here's the strange experience I had with Legere.....
They sounded pretty good on the vintage Couesnon clarinet I recently acquired. I got the best results using a 2 1/2 Legere on my Morgan RM28 mouthpiece. BUT, when I used the same set up on my restored 1964 Noblet clarinet it sounded absolutely TERRIBLE. I'm not sure what words I can use to describe the sound....garbage disposal comes to mind. Normally, I use the same cane reeds and mouthpiece between the two clarinets. I then tried the other Legere reeds I bought and all of them sounded bad on the Noblet. This is a very curious thing. I wrote to the Legere company via their web site and described the experience. I'm awaiting an answer. I should mention that I also got good results using Legere reeds on my Patricola C clarinet. So, it's only the Noblet that's problematic.
Anyway, I thought that I'd share the experience here to see if someone might have an insight about it.
Thanks, Roger
Post Edited (2005-06-27 13:58)
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Author: William
Date: 2005-06-27 14:08
I would suspect the "problem" is with your Noble clarinet and not with the Legere reed.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-06-27 14:56
How does the "same" setup sound on the Noblet with a cane reed?
Perhaps something "happened" to your Noblet recently....i.e. loose pad etc.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2005-06-27 15:34
The Noblet sounds perfectly fine with a cane reed and my RM28 mouthpiece....a nice dark, fat sound. After the Legere reeds sounded so bad on it I switched back to one of my cane reeds for a sanity check. The Noblet performed beautifully with a cane reed. There's nothing mechanically wrong with the clarinet. My repair tech gave the Noblet a check over and made some minor adjustments only last week. It's in excellent condition.
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Author: John Stackpole
Date: 2005-06-28 11:44
I'll bet it is indeed a resonance ("sympathetic vibration") phenominon that is somehow set up between the reed and the Noblet.
Does it show up over the whole range of the instrument or only at a few particular notes? Does tightening (or loosening) the ligature change things?
Or holding the reed with your thumb - no ligature? Or using the mouthpiece and barrel only - do cane and Legere sound equally squawkie then?
This doesn't really "explain" why it happens, but at least gives you a test or two to "falsify" the (resonance) theory, like the philosophers of science say.
If I can't play very well, at least I can do science.....
JDS
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Author: musica
Date: 2005-06-28 18:37
Does anyone have any reviews of the Quebec style Legere reed and how it
compares with the traditional?
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2005-06-28 19:13
Not an answer to your question but just a comment on Legere. I tried them for quite some time but finally went back to vandoren. I played a few outdoor concerts/ swing band.......got some positive feedback on my sound. It does produce a thick/solid sound that isn't thin or edgy. I think that given your setup....ie the open Morgan....Legere might work very well. He has changed the style of his reeds a few times but they still sound good. I would be careful in selecting a Legere. They aren't 100% consistent so look for one that suits your setup. It might work better on one setup vs the other. Just match the reed by trial and error. They are more consistent than perhaps Vandoren reeds but they aren't perfect. Just pick the best reed for your purposes....that also might mean experimenting with the reed strength. If you need further advice I know a few people who use them. You might contact them directly. John
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2005-06-29 17:48
musica,
I've tried the Quebec cut Legeres and I do not like them nearly as much as the Traditional cut. The Quebecs seemed softer to me, using the same strength I usually use with the Trads. FYI I play a Borbeck 13 mouthpiece with my R13...
Katrina
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Author: cujo
Date: 2005-06-29 18:13
If clarinet was just tuned up and works fine with other reeds I would suspect the problem is with something with the ligature. Try using the ligature higher or lower or reed placement higher or lower. Use different cominations you normally never would use.
Or just try a different ligature. The plastic vibrates against the mouthpiece and the table would be the focus point of resonance, if you can eliminate the bad vibration between the mouthpiece and reed it would not travel through the instrument; making te instument sound like it is resonating though the problem starts with the reed-mouthpiece contact.
Wood being porous has a much softer and completly different contact to the mouthpiece as a flat piece of platic.
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Author: szyJYM
Date: 2005-06-29 18:51
How are they sold? Individually? By the box? And how much do they cost, compared to say, a box of 10 standard vandorens?
--Mike
Wide-eyed music student entering college this fall
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2005-06-29 19:47
Sunspots, definitely. Probably in combination with a local gravitational anomaly. And perhaps a high local magnetic field density. Yeah, that's it.
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Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2005-06-30 02:27
The ligature isn't the problem. I tried using a different ligature as well as just my thumb. I got the same bad sound. As I tried the other day, I used the same RM28 mouthpiece, 2.5 Legere reed, and silver FL ligature on my Couesnon clarinet and it's sound is perfectly fine. But, when I switched the same set up to the Noblet its sound is really bad. I then tried using my RM10 mouthpiece and a 3 Legere reed on the Noblet and it, too, had the same terrible sound. Finally, I moved the RM10 and 3 Legere reed to both my Couesnon Bb and Patricolla C clarinets and both of them sounded great. There's definitely something about the way the Noblet interacts with Legere reeds. Whereas, with a cane reed it sounds fine. Most curious!
I heard back from Guy Legere about the Noblet. He suggested that I try a stiffer Legere reed. I did that today and it did not improve the sound. However, getting the stiffer Legere enabled me to try the reed on my RM10 mouthpiece and it sounds very good on my Couesnon and Patricola clarinets...as I mentioned above.
Well, the situation with the Noblet might very well remain a mystery. David might be right about the sunspots.
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Author: John Stackpole
Date: 2005-06-30 11:14
I'll bet the folks in Australia
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/woodwind.html
with their audio frequency analysers could have a field day with your problem
Sounds like a Masters Thesis project for sure or a PhD if they can pinpoint the exact cause.
JDS
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Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2005-06-30 12:21
This 1964 Noblet is the one that I described on another thread. I normally associate a .584 bore size with Noblet. However, my repair tech measured the Noblet a week or two ago and found that it's actually .600. I don't know whether all old Noblets have a larger bore or there is something odd about this particular clarinet. The next time I see my repair tech I'll run this by him and see if he can think of a reason why I get strange results with Legere and not with cane reeds on this clarinet.
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2005-06-30 12:44
I have tried the Legere and think they are very good..however, I still prefer cane and llike the variance of timbres cane can produce. I do use the Legere reeds for outdoors and feel they sound good.
Overall I tend to find pitch on synthetic cane to be a bit on the strange side..I notice a slight tendency with snthetic reeds to play on the flattish side especially in the throat region...
My students all seem to like the Legere reeds and they sound pretty good on them!
David Dow
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Author: susieray
Date: 2005-06-30 21:27
<How are they sold? Individually? By the box? And how much do they cost, compared to say, a box of 10 standard vandorens?>
They are sold individually, and are around $15 per reed....so ten Legeres would cost you $150. ![[happy]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smiley12.gif)
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