Out of curiosity, are there any brands of reeds that you find better than others? And why?
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<br>I usually play Vandoren <sp?> 3-1/2's. About two weeks ago, I tried a 4, but it just about made me pass out after a few measures <G>

I use Vandorens too. Back when I was playing every day (about 14 years ago), I was using a 4, but I can't handle that now. I'm using 3 1/2s. I think Vandorens are about the best quality reeds available, but that's not to say that they are all good. You can only count on getting a couple really good, concert quality reeds out of any box. My clarinet teachers taught me pretty early on that you need to work on all your reeds. They need to be broken in and adjusted. They rarely play well right out of the box, and if you do play them a lot right away, they tend to die quickly.



Sandy

I personally use Rico Royals. I think they are by far the best I used to play Vandoren But i dont think there as good as Rico Royals. Mind you I think that normal Ricos are rubish!! My teacher once gave me a ABC reed it sounded soooo crap HAHA it sounded more like a childrens toy horn then a clarinet!!!

kate

xxx

Vandoren seems to be the best brand out there, though there is a big difference in what brand of Vandorens you use. The regular (dark blue) box is good but usually has about 4-6 good reeds in the box. This is the same with V-12s (Grey box) The grey box is a thicker piece of wood that tapers down to the strength of reed that you want. They tend to run a little harder than the regular vandorens. I would compare the to ;v12 and reg vandorens; on your mouthpiece.
Rico makes a great Grand concert reed thick select that does wonders. The side rails of the reeds are a little thinner than the vandorens. They are more compared to the V12s. Of course, alot of reed problems can be taken care of by just a little balancing of the tip of the reed.
If you run you thumb nail against the tip corner of the reed and try feel which side is harder, You can shave down the harder side to balance the reed. Thomas Ridenour has a great book called The educators guide to the clarinet that is awesome and talks all about this.

I know this is a bit late (2003), but I wanted to thank the anonymous poster. Good information there, and for those who are interested, here is a link to the book that the poster mentioned:

The Educator's Guide to the Clarinet

It appears to be out of print, but there are still 2 left! (I think I might get one in case anyone wants to borrow it). It sounds like great information!

I currently play the Vandoren V12, and highly recommend them. They seem to be much more consistent from reed to reed. I still have to modify one every now and then, but over all they're nice.

In college, my clarinet instructor gave me a very useful pamphlet on the clarinet. I took the time to re-type it, for it was in pretty bad condition. Anyway, I'll convert it to pdf and post it here one of these days. It has a lot of good information on Clarinet repertoire as well as reed work.

matthews, you gave me a queen size:3. me personally, i play better. it wasn't as hard and stiff as the others i have used but it isn't really soft either.