Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 1999-07-14 14:28
Joel Clifton wrote:
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For a few years, I had been using the same ligature. Then one of the screws got stripped, so I had to get a new one. For some reason, the new ligature slipped off the mouthpiece whenever I tightened it. I sanded the smooth part of the reed to roughen it, but that only helped a little. I got a new ligature, and that one did the same thing. All three of the ligatures were the exact same kind. Does anyone know why my earlier ligature had no problem, but the last two did, and does anyone know how to fix this problem?
Joel
Joel -
Ligatures are inconsistent, as you have found. Still, you should be able to tighten one up without it slipping off. Try holding it down with your left hand while you tighten with the right.
Before changing the surface of the ligature or reed, try something less heroic. Whenever a ligature has slipped for me, I've always been able to cure it by putting about 1/3 of a small "Post-It" tab on the top of the mouthpiece (opposite the reed). I keep a pack of the smallest size in my case to stick on the music where there is a fast page turn, and discovered the ligature cure in a moment of desperate improvization.
If you prefer to roughen up something, I wouldn't sand the reed (presumably the bark) to keep the ligature from sliding. Rather, I'd roughen up the inside of the ligature slightly, if only because you do it just once, rather than on every reed.
Try roughening the inside of the ligature only where it contacts the reed. That way, you can only mess up a reed rather than the mouthpiece surface.
With a standard (cheap) ligature, you can rotate the ligature about 60 degrees, so that the screws are at 2:00 o'clock and the reed is held by the two metal bands that usually run along the sides. Reginald Kell did it this way, and so did Benny Goodman, as you can see on some of his album covers.
As to how much to tighten the screws, the best place to start is to make them quite snug (where you feel a noticeable increase in effort to make them any tighter), and then back off 1/4 turn. From there on, it's all a matter of experimentation and personal preference.
Good luck.
Ken Shaw
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