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Re: JLV Ligature

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-09-28 01:19

Ok, so I had to bite. This is an interesting little ligature. My curiosity is mostly about the architecture, where the top part of the plate contacts the reed. The two upper contact points are actually on the vamp which seems untenable to my mind but it actually does some unique things. In this video (at 0:52) you can see a reference to possible gaps between reed and mouthpiece along the table BEFORE the facing (point where the reed and mouthpiece intentionally diverge):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOnm6L_7IxQ

I use Legere European Signature reeds and there are a percentage that develop this odd "squeal" when they begin to lose some of their initial strength. I have come to believe that this is related to whether the table is perfectly flat or not (or if there is just some incompatibility between the reed and table whichever one is the greater culprit).

Within my first two days of testing it does indeed seem to circumvent the "squeal" of this small percentage of misbehaving reeds. There is less vibrancy to the sound compared with my preferred "plastic" ligatures, though there seems to be more life to the sound than other metal ligatures.

"Nitram" brought up the point about the marks that can be left on the mouthpiece. I've already experienced that. If you really bear down, you leave these "crescent moon" shaped divots on the left and right top surfaces of the mouthpiece. This doesn't bother me per se, but then moving the ligature slightly can be negatively affected by these notches that get in the way of the bumpers sliding up and down. Also you'd either want to use a different ligature for testing a mouthpiece (so you can return it) or be aware that you need to at least place a few patches of 3M plastic tape at those points to ward off these possible marks on the test mouthpiece.

Now, is the solution to the squeal worth $200.00? Hard to say right now. The response is the only effect this ligature has on Legere. The advertised talke about tone color changes moving it up and down is not something that manifests itself with plastic reeds.

One last oddity is that you can move this ligature quite high and it may even get better response the higher you can go (with Legere). BUT, you begin to feel the top of the plate with the area of your embouchure just below your lower lip........the TRUE upward limit to how high you adjust this ligature (aside from exceeding the facing length of course).

.................Paul Aviles

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