 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Simon
Date: 2000-10-10 04:29
I am suprised to learn that the ligature has a lot to do with tone quality. Mind you I am only an amateur. I am now disapointed that my teacher of three years never mentioned that both the ligature and the barell have a lot to do with sound quality, and that matching the reed with the mouthpiece and ligature is very important. After 3 years I became frustrated and quit. I am now thinking of making a comeback. My question is should the ligature be very tight or should it be just tight enough to keep the reed in position. I play a Vandoreen B45 M/C which ligature would be best suited for this M/C. I appreciate any advice.
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Author: Ken Rasmussen
Date: 2000-10-10 05:57
This is a very tangential answer, but I found that when I tried a Gennusa mouthpiece with a Gloten #3 reed, and a Moenig barrel on my Buffet R13, that I had a response I really liked, but a tone that was too bright for my taste. I was using a Harrison ligature. On a hunch, I phoned Weiner Music and requested their darkest sounding ligature. Unfortunately I can't remember what it is, but they are common--those leather ones that tighten with one screw. It worked perfectly. It darkened the sound up just right. I really like my set up.
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Author: thomas
Date: 2000-10-10 06:40
I have the best experiences (on German and Buffet) with a string ligature, which is furthermore
very cheap.
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Author: Benny Belly
Date: 2000-10-10 07:16
Personnally I like it when the Reed is not held very tightly, it allows the vibrations to flow to the end of the wood. So I use a piece of double-sided velcro which I wrap around the mouthpiece. It slides on and off and holds the reed securely, but because it is a souple materiel it allows the Reed to vibrate.
Plus it's cheap to make. You can get about 10 of them from a single $5.00 roll of velcro.
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Author: william
Date: 2000-10-10 14:26
The "dark" sounding lig you are trying to remember is probably the Rovner. I recommend that you try a Mitchell Laurie lig also. They are cheaper and will help you produce a smooth, darker (but not too much so) sound. My personal preference is the Winslow lig. They are the best I have ever played and I use them on all of my saxophones and clairnet, but they are super expensive, tricky to maintain properly and hard to get. The Velcro idea sounds interesting--I might give it a try.
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Author: Nate Zeien
Date: 2000-10-10 16:29
Simon, I would recommend the Rovner, or better yet string if you want a nice dark sound. String may sound crude, but I haven't found anything better. I also have a Harrison, but I use this mostly for jazz and klezmer. -- Nate Zeien
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Author: Todd
Date: 2000-10-11 05:53
I've tried a Rovner and a BG ligature. I like them both equally well, althogh the Rovner seems to hold the reed in place better when I remove the mouthpiece to swab out my clarinet. Both of them produce a better sound for me than the metal ligature I had before which was the Bonade.
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Author: Daniel Bouwmeester
Date: 2000-10-21 22:40
The fashion today is The new Rovner Eddie II which is selling like mad...... and the vandoren optimum....
The fashion ten years ago was the rovner MKII and the BG revelation ligatures.... before that... there was the standard metal ligature.... Anyway.....
Yes.... ligature does change tone... BUT not only that..... a clarinet is by definition not well designed... there's a lot of imperfections which can be elliminated..... the thing is that..... how far do we want to go with this ? Do we want a perfect clarinet ? Will a perfect clarinet sound perfect ? NO ! It's the imperfections that makes an instrument interesting.....
For those who like Jack Brymer, the famous british clarinetist. You will notice that his clarinet was not a buffet.... it used to be a Boosey and Hawkes 10/10 which was the most worse instrument designed on earth in terms of tuning... BUT when you hear him play.... well.... every note is in tune... and the tone is beautifull.... even more beautifull than most buffets.... He now plays a Paul Eaton clarinet, which I have never tried.... but which seem to have similar characteristics as the 10/10.... Anyway.... in the years when these instruments were popular (around 1970) teachers at the royal schools of music used to work with their students on the imperfection of the instrument....
Anyway... I believe that no equipment will replace hours of practice...
Oh well... for the equipment freaks, I recommend the new type ligatures which have changeable pads... like the vandoren optimum and the rovner Eddie II.....
A piece of shoe lace, a tie rap or scotch tape works pretty good too...
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