 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2005-11-14 11:45
Here's a question for those who are using Legere reeds and/or those who have a good level of knowledge about different reed cases.....
I'm currently rotating 3 Legere Quebec clarinet and 3 Legere standard cut tenor saxophone reeds that play BEAUTIFULLY. I'm extremely happy with them. However, I'm breaking in a new Legere reed on both instruments and they are problematic. I don't think that it's a matter of the new reeds being, in effect, stiffer than the reeds I'm using in rotation. Rather, it appears to me that the new reeds haven't conformed yet to my mouthpieces. As a test, I put a broken in reed on my mouthpiece and slid a piece of paper between the mouthpiece and reed to see the distance to where paper stopped. Then, I did the same thing with the new reed. As I suspected, the distance was longer with the new reed. Thus, it has the effect of having a longer facing curve and explains why the new reed has much more resistance than the broken in reeds.
First, I'm curious if others have had a similar situation in breaking in a new Legere reed. If so, what did you do about it?....other than continue to play on it for a couple of weeks.
Second, I'm wondering if the Pro-Tec reed case I'm using is giving the reed enough downward pressure on the surface of the case in order to be flat. I'm starting to think that the design of this reed case may be contributing to my problem with a new Legere reed. I'm wondering if a reed case that has a glass surface (such as a Galaxy case) would be better. Any thoughts about that?
Thanks, Roger
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Author: BassetHorn
Date: 2005-11-14 20:21
Roger, for what it’s worth, here is my experience. I use Legeres on my contrabass clarinets only, and they work well. I break them in by playing them daily and leaving them on the mouthpiece when I am done playing. I have read that you shouldn’t do this, I supposed with cane reeds, for apparent hygienic and reed longevity reasons, but this method works for me when breaking in new reeds. Maybe being under ligature’s tension help the reed contour the mouthpiece’s shape.
I do however remove the mouthpiece and swap it and the instrument. And every few days I remove the reeds for a thorough cleaning.
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Author: Grant
Date: 2005-11-14 22:19
I have been using Legere reeds for about a year and have had sucess in storing them in a Vandoren reed keeper between uses. I play in three community bands and the Legere reeds are more adaptable to the sometimes difficult conditions that we have to put up with.
I rotate two reeds and can't tell between them most of the time.
Peace on Earth and May You always have a reed that PLAYS.
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Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2005-11-15 14:20
As a follow up....
I spoke on the phone yesterday with Guy Legere. His take was it simply might be a problem reed. He asked me to mail it to him and to try another new Quebec reed. I did and the new reed plays fine. Even before playing the first note I could tell that this reed was different from the other one in how it stayed put on my mouthpiece with my thumb on the back end of the reed stock. (ie, the front end didn't pop up as with the problem reed) Then, when I began to play on the new reed I must have breathed a sigh of relief. No problems at all with it.
With respect to a different reed case, if I understood Guy correctly it sounded like it wouldn't help in making a problem reed become flatter. Never the less, I went ahead and ordered a reed case that has a glass plate as I'll most likely find it helpful distinguishing between flat and curved reeds.
I'm not sure if I mentioned on the Forum how I recently switched from Francois Louis ligatures to the Charles Bay gold model. I discovered that Legere reeds work better for me when a larger area of pressure is put on the reed stock than what the FL's small reed plate provides. I tried several ligs including the BG Tradition (in both silver and gold). I settled on the Charles Bay gold uncovered lig. I'm very impressed with its tonal qualities, projection, and response. It has made a wonderful contribution to my clarinet and saxophone set ups.
Roger
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