 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: davidsampson
Date: 2008-01-09 03:56
I've noticed that most reed manufacturer's have reeds for bass clarinet. However, most of them only have one cut for the bass, where as the clarinet might have a few. I know the market isn't as big for bass reeds, but surely a variety of cuts might be supported, or at least 2. I had vandoren V12 reeds in mind. Is there any word on Vandoren, Legere, Rico, Gonzales, or any of the other major reed manufacturer's coming out with a higher quality cut for bass?
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Author: NorbertTheParrot
Date: 2008-01-09 10:15
Your question seems to imply that V12 are higher-quality than blue-box Vandoren reeds. I don't believe this to be the case. V12s are more expensive because they are made of larger diameter cane. There is no difference in quality.
Rico do, however, make at least two different quality levels for bass - the standard Ricos and the Grand Concert.
As has been discussed in the past, some players find that tenor sax reeds work well on the bass. Others disagree, of course.
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Author: Tobin
Date: 2008-01-09 10:31
The saxophone definitely enjoys a greater pantheon of reeds than the bass, so that might not be a bad idea...
Blue boxes are fine enough for me in this case.
James
Gnothi Seauton
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Author: swkeess
Date: 2008-01-09 21:16
If you're looking for a variety of cuts, Rigotti Gold offers various sizes in Light, Medium, and Strong. My personal favorite is 3.5 Medium, as they play well right out of the box and last a long time.
Susan Keess
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Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2008-01-10 00:43
It's been my experience that Legere bass clarinet reeds work beautifully on a Grabner LB mouthpiece.
Roger
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Author: LCL
Date: 2008-01-10 15:37
I agree with Roger. I use Legere exclusively on my Grabner & Backun BC Mpcs. I also use them for Contra-alto and Contrabass, again exclusively. I also spray the mpc. and underside of the reed with Rovner Mouthpiece Magic, which seems to brighten up their performance
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2008-01-10 16:11
You can always use Vandoren V16 tenor sax reeds on bass clarinet - or any tenor sax reed of your choice as there's a huge selection to choose from, unlike bass clarinet specific reeds where there are only a handful of makes (and they're essentially tenor sax reeds anyway).
Same with alto clarinet - just use alto sax reeds instead.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: DougR
Date: 2008-01-10 16:29
Yeah, just to echo Chris P, one day I was playing through some older bass clarinet reeds and ran across a couple that really played surprisingly well! Free-blowing, nice "ring" to them, but not too treble-y, with plenty of guts in the low end and a nice solidity to them. Turns out I had picked up my tenor-sax reed holder by mistake, and they were Vandoren V16s. Before this, I was an "only Bass clarinet reeds on my bass clarinet!!" person, but now I'm re-thinking that. (Had been using Gonzalez on the bass. The v-16s don't seem to need that pesky break-in process, either.)
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