 The Fingering Forum
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Author: ClArInEtMaN
Date: 2004-04-01 03:20
When i play on a #3 strength clarinet reed (mitchell lurie brand) they all don't give me a good tone...maybe 4 or 5 out of 10. Does this mean i should switch to a 3 1/2 strenth, or go back to a 2 1/2?
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Author: Mazz
Date: 2004-04-01 13:12
whatever gets u the best general tone is what you should use, but if uve only tried one of the #3 strength try a different one also because only 3 out of 10 reeds work extremely well and only 5 out of 10 work well leaving the other ones crap reeds (put nicely)
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Author: richard
Date: 2004-04-01 14:21
for most brands of reeds in a box of ten, you usually only get about 3 to 4 reeds that work well. I've just bought a box of 10 vandoren trad. reeds and only 3 reeds are good enough for my playing.
I used to play Mitchell Lurie 3.5 before I change to use Vandoren. The Vandoren trad. does sound brighter and much better than Mitchell Lurie. Off course, the price is higher. I suggest you to buy a box of Vandoren for trying (not advertising).
But when choosing a suitable strength of vandoren, you have to minus 0.5 from the stenght of Mitchell Lurie you are using. For example, a Mitchell Lurie 3.5 is equivalent to a Vandoren 3.0 and so on. There are comparison charts of strength of different reeds in the internet for your reference.
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Author: Theboy_2
Date: 2004-04-02 22:15
if you really want, when you buy some reeds, you can always shave them down, whatever you need to do to make them perfect. just don't take off a lot or you'll have horrible sound and quality. hope this helps.
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Author: TrebleMaker
Date: 2005-02-26 16:37
I wouldn't blindly switch to a different brand if you like the sound you are getting with Mitchell Lurie reeds. As Richard stated, you will get a brighter tone with Vandoren reeds, but brighter is NOT better. If you want to sound like a jazz player, then you may want to do that. If you are playing orchestrally, the darker the better. Personally, I play Mitchell Lurie 5 1/2 (which is a problem for me, as they have quit manufacturing reeds at that strength). You may want to go 1/2 strength harder on the reeds you are playing now, but keep that tone in mind. As all the others have said, rarely will every reed in the box play to your satisfaction. If you have access to a store that will let you select several reeds from a box, I would do that, trying several different brands until you find the sound you want.
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