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| Rico or Vandoren |
| Rico |
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23% |
[ 4 ] |
| Vandoren |
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[ 13 ] |
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| Total Votes : 17 |
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 Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 8:07 pm
So my friend for some reason wants me to try and learn clarinet (I play trombone) so besides the fact I am worried about my embouchure getting f'ed up I'm having trouble finding a good reed i was told to buy Rico reeds but another friend told me that they are the worst and I'm pretty sure she uses Vandoren as a beginner which should I go with
btw I think I'm gonna do a size 2 does that sound about right for a beginner.
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Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 8:13 pm
Yes, #2 reeds are the best for beginers. ( as my band teacher put it: #1- are basically flimsy paper. #2- is good for beginners. #3- is tougher. and #4- is basically a block of wood)
I use Rico for my clarinet/bass clarinet. I tired Vandorums once, and all the reeds split way to easily. People say they are the best, but I say they're worse. Rico is good for beginners. Just make sure to really suck on the reed before using it to get it flexable. Or else it wont vibrate. Keep the corners of your mouth firm and tight, (for woodwind, never move your embouchure. It's bad for the sound. You know, unless your adjusting your sound)
There is also Rico Royals, they are by Rico, but are alittle better quality.
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Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 8:24 pm
Sorry Fallen, but I'm going to have to disagree with you sweatdrop . Personally, I like Van Doren, as with the rest of my clarinet section. The only good thing about Rico is that they're cheaper. They're weaker than Van Doren (a Van Doren 2 is basically a Rico 2 1/2) and they just never seemed to play as well for me. Can't say much about durability, though, seeing how I break all of my reeds pretty quickly regardless of brand sweatdrop .
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Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 8:29 pm
Ricos-for any woodwind instrument- is the cheapest you should ever, ever, ever, ever buy. Go any lower than a Rico price, it's crap. Rico's are the best for beginner and advanced. I use ZZ (Vadoren) reeds on my alto saxophone. It depends on what use you and how you take care of your reed. Start off with a 2 reed and work your way up a half size each year. DO NOT LEAVE REED IN MOUTHPIECE!!!! THIS IS UTMOST IMPORTANT!!! You don't want to get mold on it. Finally, change your reeds when they break or chip. Do not use split reeds. And change your reed every one and a half to two weeks.
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Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 8:32 pm
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Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 10:23 pm
Van doren, i switched from ricos i could tell the difference, as a trombone player which would you rather use cheap, crap slide oil, or exspensive, quality slide oil.
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Ellermano generated a random number between
13 and 13 ...
13!
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:09 am
VanDoren. I play tenor and soprano sax for my school's jazz band, and french horn for symphomic band, so i know the feeling of the embochue switch.
I personally think the vandoren reeds are easier to play, last a bit longer, and give better tone than any rico reed. In any case, start on a two. I started on a three. No bueno.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 5:01 pm
these people are all opinionated twits neutral . of course some reeds are better than others, but which reeds are better differ for each person. a lot of it is preference, a lot of it just has to do with slight variations in embouchure. some of it could have to do with the chemical make-up of your saliva. either way, if a vandoren is best for me, that doesn't mean they will be best for you. personally i prefer rico over vandoren (though i use neither on clarinet). vandoren have a fake-y feel to me and they sound dry and brittle. rico at least feels like wood and can get a fuller tone (for me). I use Mitchell Lurie reeds because they work better than either rico or vandoren for me.
the best thing you can do is to get one of each, and maybe two others of different brands and test them all to see which is easiest/sounds best/feels best for you.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 5:06 pm
Kazi Drake Van doren, i switched from ricos i could tell the difference, as a trombone player which would you rather use cheap, crap slide oil, or exspensive, quality slide oil. this isn't a very valid comparison, seeing as slide oil is chemical, meaning much more reliable. slide oil has formulas to produce very consistent products.(not to mention, some companies will over-price their product to make you think it's better) reeds are organic, meaning there is no way you can consistently make the same product. you will get slight, or huge, differences in each reed even among reeds of the same brand. plus, the reed is reacting with your saliva, which can stiffen or slacken the reed. slide oil is reacting with metal, which is also much more consistent of a result than wood+saliva. each person's saliva is different and will react to reeds differently, which means rico could very well be the better reed for someone with compatible saliva even though it's cheaper.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 5:31 pm
Umm.... The only thing you saliva does is moisten the reed to allow it to vibrate and there's no chemical reaction between the saliva and the reed, so unless you're trying to say that everyone's saliva has different levels of moisture it's not really an individual matter.
As for the reeds coming from something natural, I have to agree with you on that. However, there is a formula of sorts to make sure that all of a company's reeds are somewhat similar just as all potato chips are somewhat similar despite coming from equally natural resources.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 6:40 pm
Kagetsukiko Umm.... The only thing you saliva does is moisten the reed to allow it to vibrate and there's no chemical reaction between the saliva and the reed, so unless you're trying to say that everyone's saliva has different levels of moisture it's not really an individual matter. As for the reeds coming from something natural, I have to agree with you on that. However, there is a formula of sorts to make sure that all of a company's reeds are somewhat similar just as all potato chips are somewhat similar despite coming from equally natural resources. actually, if you cared to research anything you said, you'd know that saliva IS indeed a chemical. it is an enzyme, designed to DIGEST (that means 'break down) organic materials. since we have already established that reeds are organic, that means your saliva is trying to EAT reeds. different reeds will digest better or worse than others, that means that yes, reeds react DIFFERENTLY to different people's saliva. and even with machines doing the work on the reeds, the make-up is different. the individual FIBERS inside of the reed will be laid out differently in each reed. no matter how hard you try, you will never get reeds that are exactly the same. in fact, because of the machined reeds, you could very well destroy a reed that might have been good if it were handmade. try to research your arguments better, and use a little common sense once you have done the research.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:23 pm
I am speaking from the saxophone perspective. My band director always said that the Rico is the lowest priced reed you should go. Vadorens give a deeper, darker tone to saxophones, while ZZs are good for jazz. Rico's are great for anything for regular sound. I am not debunking Ricos. I have used them a greater part of my playing years. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Ricos. And nothing wrong with Vandoren.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:44 pm
Clarinet: Yes, because the reeds are in our mouths long enough for the saliva to digest them rolleyes . That also completely explains why I've seen videos that instruct beginners to moisten their reed in a cup of water rather than their mouth. I do know that saliva is a chemical. I'm just saying that we don't digest our reeds to get them to vibrate. We moisten them. Besides, the enzymes in our saliva only digests starch. Unless reeds happen to have a lot of starch in them (yes, I know that they probably have some starch because they come from plants), I really don't think they're digested all that much. Not to mention, have you ever had a reed that started looking like it was being digested from being played too much? I haven't. I've broken my reeds but I have yet to see a reed slowly deteriorate. Or even better, has your reed ever tasted sweet after sucking on it for a long time? As with before, I haven't ever experienced something like that.
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Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 7:45 am
Kagetsukiko Clarinet: Yes, because the reeds are in our mouths long enough for the saliva to digest them rolleyes . That also completely explains why I've seen videos that instruct beginners to moisten their reed in a cup of water rather than their mouth. I do know that saliva is a chemical. I'm just saying that we don't digest our reeds to get them to vibrate. We moisten them. Besides, the enzymes in our saliva only digests starch. Unless reeds happen to have a lot of starch in them (yes, I know that they probably have some starch because they come from plants), I really don't think they're digested all that much. Not to mention, have you ever had a reed that started looking like it was being digested from being played too much? I haven't. I've broken my reeds but I have yet to see a reed slowly deteriorate. Or even better, has your reed ever tasted sweet after sucking on it for a long time? As with before, I haven't ever experienced something like that. Starch comes from 'all green' plants. Reeds, when they are alive, are all-green. Starch comes from a word which means 'stiffen' reeds are quite stiff. Yes, reeds have starch in them. In fact, reeds will stiffen and become brittle in response to saliva. This makes reeds bad for playing instruments. The point is that people have different levels of potency in their saliva. This makes it so reeds do, in fact, react at different levels to different people. No, I've never had a reed 'deteriorate' or become 'sweet'. I have ruined reeds by soaking them in my mouth when I was too lazy to find water. Unless you're constantly drenching the reed in saliva, it will not deteriorate. Thinking like that is akin to saying 'Evolution isn't real because these tomatoes didn't turn into watermelons.' It just doesn't happen that fast. Just because you may have stuck a saltine cracker in your mouth and noticed how mooshy and sweet it gets doesn't mean it happens that fast with everything, especially raw plants. Eventually, if it were covered in a thick coating of saliva, yes, it would start to deteriorate. But playing an instrument doesn't coat it in that much saliva. You cover it in a lot of saliva while you soak it, but after that it only maintains a very thin coat of saliva.
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Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 7:50 am
Hikari Myst I am speaking from the saxophone perspective. My band director always said that the Rico is the lowest priced reed you should go. Vadorens give a deeper, darker tone to saxophones, while ZZs are good for jazz. Rico's are great for anything for regular sound. I am not debunking Ricos. I have used them a greater part of my playing years. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Ricos. And nothing wrong with Vandoren. I've been speaking from both perspectives the entire time (really, there's no difference in perspective. all reeds are made from the Arundo Donax species of reed). Personally I use Rico Jazz Select for my alto (which I use almost exclusively for jazz band). ZZs are stuffy for me, they're not as responsive, and as with every other Vandoren, they feel fake to me. No, absolutely nothing wrong with them. The point I'm trying to prove is that you should never take anyone's word on which reed is best. You should always try reeds before you decide whether you like them or not. I also should say that hardness of reed is not determined by how long you've been playing. Of course, the longer you've been playing, the better able you will be to play on stiffer reeds, but don't do it just because you can. Reed hardness should be determined primarily by the tip opening of your mouthpiece. If you've got a large tip opening, use a less hard reed. If you've got a smaller tip opening, use a harder reed.
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