D’addario Reeds

[RockinRobin]

I use carbon onyx reeds
William

[sxpoet]

William – all the tenor recordings with synthetic reeds sound great to me.

Unfortunately for me all the alto synthetic reeds that i have tried so far just didn’t sound right compared to the cane reeds especially higher up the sax, and a few keys were badly out of tune for me to embouchure them in tune. So i just can’t take to them.

i can’t say i was unlucky and bought some bad synthetic reeds because i tried several different types and they all behaved the same. Also they cost too much for me to keep testing out, if i can’t work with them.

In a box of 10 cane reeds, you might find only one or two good reeds, so far all the box of cane reeds i have bought in recent years all the reeds were playable – touch wood.

But i did find the plasticover reeds playable, and they last longer than the cane reeds, so i might invest in some more of them as an alternative to synthetic.

[sxpoet]

Just ordered a D’Addario Alto Synthetic VEN No.2 reed, i’ll try it out next week when it arrives by post.

They say with synthetic reeds that they remain flat all the time, so a No.3 synthetic reed will always be a No.3 reed.

Whereas with cane reeds the longer you play them they don’t remain flat and the tips start to curve away, so eventually a No.3 reed played a lot overtime reshapes to a No.2 tip.

This explains why when i play a No.2 reed after 10 minutes it becomes unplayable as the tip is curving into a No.1 reed. Now i understand why i kept switching to No.3 reeds when i was playing some of my old No.2 reeds after 10 minutes. The cane reed has lost its strength to retain it’s shape as it wears out with age and saliva.

[Jeff]

I played for two hours the other day and the reed was performing better after it was thoroughly wetted. The only reason I had to stop was because my lip was becoming tender. I don’t have any problems with the cane reeds, but that is probably because I look after them properly and never leave them to dry out on the MP covered in saliva. I also only purchase Vandoren reeds, Classic and Java Green.

[sxpoet]

You want to try out some D’addario reeds, might open your eyes …

[Author]

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