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Re: bass clartinet reed choices

Author: LarryBocaner ★2017
Date: 2007-06-08 13:46

Eeferguy, like yourself I am a former Vandoren user who has switched to Grand Concert and, more recently, Gonzalez reeds for bass clarinet.

I was one of the "beta" testers for the Grand Concert product, and even years after the conclusion of the tests I found myself using some of the test reeds. They were (ultimately) well cut and made with very dense cane that remained stable and resilient even after weeks of playing. To my dismay, when I actually had to go out and buy some GC reeds after my "free" supply dwindled, I found quite a different product -- inferior cane that sounded good for the first day and then went rapidly downhill to the point of unusability. Sort of like Mitchell Lurie Bb reeds from the same company.

More recently I've switched to Gonzalez, which sound just fine with my Garrett Zinner-based mouthpiece and seem to keep their playability for a reasonable amount of time. The Gonzalez reeds seem to run softer than some other brands so I've worked my way up to #3-3/4 strength -- might even eventually go to #4's. I suspect that your #3 Gonzalez's ought to be compared with #2-1/2 Grand Concerts or Vandorens to give you a more even playing field for your experimentation.

Larry Bocaner
National Symphony Orchestra (retired)

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Author

Date

bass clartinet reed choices new

Ebclarinet1

2007-06-08 12:09

Re: bass clartinet reed choices

LarryBocaner

2007-06-08 13:46