[jazzarazzer]

I'm told that most great discoveries are made by accident and then written up as "discoveries" after the event. Anyway what a happy accident for me today when I got my first box of Rico Jazz select 2m reeds (I usually use rico royal 2 1/2) which I decided to try these from Reedexpress.com after reading the reviews here. Box of five arrived, bit of a surprise, had been expecting ten, but on checking the website it was indeed a box of 5, although the picture on website looks like a 10 box. Tried the reeds out one by one after a little soaking. First I noticed that they were bigger than the royals....put them on anyway and WHAT'S THIS!!!! every one played great! They did seem a bit big on My otto link stm, wider and longer, but I thought that must be the thing with the jazz select reeds, and wow do they sound good, lovely rich tone deep down and plenty of controlled focus up top, class! Very impressed I was and a bit happy, instead of the usual - one good reed one crap reed, get out the knife and the sandpaper act - , I was straight in with 5 good reeds.
Then I had a read (no pun intended) of the box and what do I see? "BARITONE SAX"! No wonder they were bigger.
Anyway I'm keeping them. They do cost four times (21£ for five) the price of rico royal tenor (12£ for 10)reeds but 5/5 good reeds is better than 3/10. Maybe they will distort due to being oversized on the mouthpiece? Anybody have experience of this?
Just so happy with the sound!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[cann0nba11]

Randy Lee, a monster player in Dallas and one of the best studio guys I know plays alto reeds on his soprano mouthpiece. I haven't tried it yet...

 

[Sigmund451]

Im told that Ron (RPC) used to suggest them for his pieces. Give it a whirl and report back.

 

[CiaranAudio]

This is one of the coolest ideas I have ever heard of.

 

[Sigmund451]

My thinking is that it would generally be best suited for mouthpieces with exceptionally long facings and chambers to compensate.

 

[jazzarazzer]

Who is Ron (rpc) please Sigmund?
I haven't tried them on my selmer soloist yet but will give it a go tomorrow. So far so good.

 

[kcp]

I have had a different experience last week when I was practicing tenor. I wanted to change my reed which was quite old and put a new one on without realising it was a baritone reed - I hated it - I put another read on, and an other, and an other... I couldn't understand why they all sounded bad until I realised they were all bari reeds and that I was out of tenor reeds.

 

[Sigmund451]

Ron is the maker of RPC mouthpiece. Kim is spot on. If the mouthpiece is not made to handle a bari mouthpiece it is likely to sound like crap. Some of Ron's old pieces had unusually long facing curves and I presume the baffle made up for the increased low end response of the lengthy curve. If you put a bari reed on a standard cut mouthpiece it is likely to not respond well and also have weird tone. Of course everything is worth a shot...if you have a bari reed around stick one on....maybe good...maybe not.

 

[jazzarazzer]

Shouldnt work I suppose but it does. Best sound I've had, accurate intonation etc. My mp is a link super tone master 8 with the original ligature which is a bit of a tight fit for a bari reed but I have a rovner dark on the way next week which should give a bit more room. Any way "if it works use it" is my motto from now on - and this works. I'd recommend anyone to give it a try especially if they want more body in their tenor sound - and who doesn't. The curvature of the bari reed matches the curvature of the mp tip exactly too although it hangs out a bit on the side. It just seems to seal better than my tenor reeds. Strange but true.
Night all and thanks for response, more tests tomorrow

 

[SaxColossusJR]

of course, sonny rollins played tenor reeds on his alto as a kid, because he wanted to sound like coleman and his mom couldn't afford a tenor for him