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Re: Saxophone and Clarinet reed similarities

Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2017-07-14 09:51

Lot's of good questions. As a past reed designer and quality control for a reed company I can answer most of your questions related to Vandoren, since you stated their name! I also met Bernard Vandoren. A very nice man! The tenor and bass clarinet reeds are almost the same. The bass clarinet reed I believe is a shade shorter in length. The measurements are a tad different, but not much. You could use a Java tenor reed on a bass clarinet, just cut the back end to fit as the length could be too long for the mouthpiece. The sound of a soprano sax on a Bb clarinet could work, it surely would have a different sound. The soprano sax reed is shorter and a tad bit wider.

Clarinet mouthpieces in general are close in size, so most of the ligatures are close in size, but they do vary slightly. There is also a difference between the Germam mouthpieces and the French designs. The German mouthpiece are thinner so the French ligatures won't ever fit.

But the full line of the saxes is all over the place in sizes and shapes. There are probably 25 different sized ligatures. It could be 100! This is why your questions are so good!

Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces

Yamaha Artist 2015

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