check out the vandoren website for a description of all their reed types. Some are suited better for classical & dark sounding mouthpieces (soft playing) and others are more suited for bright projecting loud jazzy sounding mouth pieces.

traditionaly european mouthpieces were made & tested with vandorens,
which i why a lot of orchestras use the vandoren range – for my classical grade exams, i had to change to a selmar mouthpiece & use vandoren reeds (v16 or normal vandoren reeds, and la viz reeds work just as well) otherwise i wouldn’t be able to play softly
classical wise and get a more classical sound.

Some of the other vandorens work well for bright loud mouthpieces,
and the Ricoh jazz reeds work as well.

If you use the basic standard reeds in any make, they tend to be aimed at learners and usually cover a wide range of playing – but when you get more experienced and you are looking for a specific sound – then you pick the mouthpiece in mind – and match it to a more specific reed type.

Welcome to the setup nightmare/joyous world – and then to cap it all – what ligature are you going to use with your setup?

I’ve had problems with a metal berg larsen too. I ordered a 105/1 a while ago and I’ve played it every once in a while to try and get it to sound good but it just doesn’t. It’s like I’m fighting the mouthpiece. It squeaks all the time in the high register and it’s literally impossible for me to play quietly. I’ve given up; metal mouthpieces just aren’t for me.

For my classical setup I use a rovner ligature, and I noticed when i played in a jazz/swing band last week. My sound was exactly like all the experienced sax players around me. So based on that – i don’t need to change from using a rovner.

As for squeaking in the high register that sounds more like an embouchure not used to a wider mouthpiece – seen a lot of demos of that on youtube with professionals trying out mouthpieces that they don’t use when they play professionaly.

if you like your sound & your ligature – i would stick with it!

Johnny’s daily practice routine + the 1st two lessons of his Altissimo course which i do daily as a warm up – made a vast difference to my sound. A much
cheaper alternative to getting a
cracking sound than pond hopping
around various mouthpieces/ligatures/reeds.

The proof in that – if you look at student sax players in their teens, they can only afford very
basic setups & they sound GREAT.

In terms of getting the right setup? Seriously – take a Pro sax player along with you, tell him the type of sound you want (classical, jazz etc.) try out the
new setups, play a simple tune and get his feed back! In the long run, its cheaper to pay for his advice than troll through lots of setups.

Thats what i did, and he picked out a mouthpiece which sounded to me awfully dull – i would have overlooked looked it for a brighter sounding mouthpiece! Against my own judgement i took his advice, bought the mouthpiece he liked the sound of – within a few days/weeks – got a good classical tone which i love.

In my case it works better for me to get feed back about what my setup sounds like from experienced sax player, as i think my mind can play tricks on me about how i feel my sound sounds like – hence i have to rely on a tuner, or another sax sound around me to compare to.