 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: susannah
Date: 2009-06-08 04:33
Hi everyone, I'm just about to order a box of marca reeds to try for the first time, but there seems to be conflicting information about how the strengths compare with vandoren.. What strength should I order to get something similar to Vandoren V12 3.5? Thanks for your help!
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2009-06-08 12:03
I would stick with Vandoren rather than spending your money on those bad reeds. In my tries of 20+ brands of reeds I have to say I've never seen less quality cane. All of them except the FG Premium might meed the standard of regular Rico and Rico Royal. I did try a box of all their models(including Ponzol but excluded their Student type). The cane ranged from being cold in color to have green tone to it or was even brown in color. They were very rough in my mouth and sanding down the edges(a lot) made them ok but they died on me fairly quickly. Even their FG premium that did not need any sanding of the edges and played right or slightly to hard for me out of the box died within couple of days(after careful brake-in).
I can only recommend Rico Reserve or Xilema for you to try out. 3.5+ of the Reserve and C or C+ in Xilema(professional is close to the V-12 cut) would be close to 3.5 in V-12.
I've also heard/seen very successful result from my former teacher and 3rd/bass player in the Icelandic Symphony orchestra with PL class reeds.They are a bit expensive but you can use all the reeds in the box and the cane quality is much better than Vandoren.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2009-06-08 15:04
I've used Marca reeds on bass clarinet frequently (along with Vandoren and a few other brands) for many years. Speaking only for bass clarinet, I'd say that Marca reed strengths are fairly comparable with Vandoren strengths. I've found that Marcas need a bit more scraping (generally on the bottoms to make them perfectly flat) than Vandorens, however. But once 'scraped to taste' they seem to work well and last a while.
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Author: William
Date: 2009-06-08 15:10
I played Marca reeds back in the mid 90's after working with Tom Ridenour in selecting my Leblanc Concerto clarinets. He had just redone the reed profile for the Traditional models and they seemed to compete favorably with Vandorans. I seem to remember the strength needed to be one half stronger than the V12 to be comparable and, at that time, they were fairly consistant. However, after playing them for a couple of years, I eventually went back to V12s because they sounded better. But "then was then and now is now", so to speak. The quality of cane has taken a decided nose dive for most of the reed industry and, for me, no reed seems to be as good as it used to be. Also, I have shelved my Leblanc Concertos in favor of my vintage R13 set of clarinets and have switched from cane to the new Forestone reed which is playing remarkably well on my Chicago Kaspar #14 mouthpiece. You may also want to check John Moses report on the Legere reed, especially the end posting that I just made regarding the Forestone.
But to get back to your original question, I have not recently used Marca reeds, but remember them to run a half step softer than comparable V12s. So if you play V12, #3's, you may need a Marca #3.5.
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2009-06-08 16:34
"The quality of cane has taken a decided nose dive for most of the reed industry and, for me, no reed seems to be as good as it used to be."
Odd that quality for Marca's cane has taken so much more nose dive than cane from many other brands(Vandoren,Alexander,AW,PL class,Rico Grand Concert and Reserve,Xilema,Gonzalez,Neuranter,Reeds Australia,Sinus,Zonda,Glotin,Rigotti,Foglietta etc).
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Author: susannah
Date: 2009-06-09 02:09
Thanks everyone for your help; might stick with Vandorens for the moment!
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