[Hassles]

https://www.stlouismusic.com/st-louis-music-acquires-compass-ligatures/

I recall a thread about the then new Claude Lakey Compass Ligature about 2003. A vast majority of user comments on this forum were quite positive. Shortly after this time there seems to be little mention and the ligatures hard to come by. If you look at the URL above you will see that St. Louis Music bought the Compass Ligature from Lakey in 2016 eg: St Louis Music now own the Compass Ligature. The few instances of this ligature being found for sale all cite the Claude Lakey Compass Ligature and mostly from Ted Brown Music. I am curious - has the ligature fallen out of favour?

 

[click]

https://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?197811-Claude-Lakey-Compass-Ligature/page5

post 86 and 87 are mine

It twisted the reed, could not use it.

 

[Hassles]

Hey click - most interesting - thanks for your contribution, greatly appreciated.

 

[click]

Hey click - most interesting - thanks for your contribution, greatly appreciated.

It got good reviews, as I recall.

So it might not be fair to rely upon my experience.

 

[Guto]

https://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?197811-Claude-Lakey-Compass-Ligature/page5

post 86 and 87 are mine

It twisted the reed, could not use it.

Post #63 is mine. I had the same (bad) experience.

 

[swperry1]

I had one and either chucked it or threw it in as a freebie with a mouthpiece I sold on here. Great idea to have a lig that fits almost any mouthpiece, but terrible design to have to have inserts to actually make it fit that aren’t able to be used/ removed repeatedly. Also, to get it tight enough it twisted the reed out of position on the table.

 

[Hornlip]

I had one that came with a Lakey mpc. My impression was that it was a good idea badly executed. The materials used seemed cheap. IIRC there was a thin synthetic pad material on the side-arms that gripped the mouthpiece barrel. They were really too tight, even before tightening the lig, and the material pretty quickly started to move out of position & exposed sticky adhesive underneath. It was supposed to be effective and super easy to use, and occasionally it was easy to use, but usually you had to fiddle with it as much as any lig.

 

[Guto]

I had one that came with a Lakey mpc. My impression was that it was a good idea badly executed. The materials used seemed cheap. IIRC there was a thin synthetic pad material on the side-arms that gripped the mouthpiece barrel. They were really too tight, even before tightening the lig, and the material pretty quickly started to move out of position & exposed sticky adhesive underneath. It was supposed to be effective and super easy to use, and occasionally it was easy to use, but usually you had to fiddle with it as much as any lig.

I disagree. I believe their concept of translating a rotatory movement into a force perpendicular to the reed, the way they designed it, is flawed by design. It doesn't matter the quality of materials they use, this design will always push the reed to rotate as you dial the force in. I agree with your latter part, that on top of being a flawed design, it is not easy to use either. A major failure IMO.

 

[mmichel]

I believe their concept of translating a rotatory movement into a force perpendicular to the reed, the way they designed it, is flawed by design. It doesn't matter the quality of materials they use, this design will always push the reed to rotate as you dial the force in.

I disagree with the generalization you make in this statement.

While I've never owned or used the Compass ligatures, I have used Francois Louis Ultimate and Wanne Liberty ligatures for more than a decade. Both of these ligatures are designed such that they "translate a rotational movement (i.e., the turning of a screw) into a force perpendicular to the reed (i.e., via the pressure plate)" and neither has given me any trouble with rotating reeds.

 

[Guto]

I disagree with the generalization you make in this statement.

While I've never owned or used the Compass ligatures, I have used Francois Louis Ultimate and Wanne Liberty ligatures for more than a decade. Both of these ligatures are designed such that they "translate a rotational movement (i.e., the turning of a screw) into a force perpendicular to the reed (i.e., via the pressure plate)" and neither has given me any trouble with rotating reeds.

Those are very different. That's why I said "the way they designed it", specific to the Compass, not a generalization.

Maybe you can see it on this picture. The Compass does not have the floating plate you see on the Wanne, FL, Link and others. It's a single piece of plastic that both holds the reed and grabs around the mouthpiece body. And because it's made to fit any size mouthpiece the part that holds the reed is quite wider then the mouthpiece table, with room to move around it. As you tighten the ligature, the coef of friction between knob and ligature body increases, partially because of the steel wires that are tied to the knob and pushing against the ligature body at the same time. As soon as the ligature starts firming up around the mouthpiece, as you further rotate the knob the whole ligature body starts twisting too, and it twists the reed with it.

 

[mmichel]

Those are very different. That's why I said "the way they designed it", specific to the Compass, not a generalization.

Maybe you can see it on this picture. The Compass does not have the floating plate you see on the Wanne, FL, Link and others. It's a single piece of plastic that both holds the reed and grabs around the mouthpiece body. And because it's made to fit any size mouthpiece the part that holds the reed is quite wider then the mouthpiece table, with room to move around it. As you tighten the ligature, the coef of friction between knob and ligature body increases, partially because of the steel wires that are tied to the knob and pushing against the ligature body at the same time. As soon as the ligature starts firming up around the mouthpiece, as you further rotate the knob the whole ligature body starts twisting too, and it twists the reed with it.

Ah, okay. I misunderstood you. My mistake.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Hornlip]

Those are very different. That's why I said "the way they designed it", specific to the Compass, not a generalization.

Maybe you can see it on this picture. The Compass does not have the floating plate you see on the Wanne, FL, Link and others. It's a single piece of plastic that both holds the reed and grabs around the mouthpiece body. And because it's made to fit any size mouthpiece the part that holds the reed is quite wider then the mouthpiece table, with room to move around it. As you tighten the ligature, the coef of friction between knob and ligature body increases, partially because of the steel wires that are tied to the knob and pushing against the ligature body at the same time. As soon as the ligature starts firming up around the mouthpiece, as you further rotate the knob the whole ligature body starts twisting too, and it twists the reed with it.
[ snip ]

If it tended to twist seems like that would indicate the wires weren't tightening at the same rate. Something a more precise mechanism might fix, but would probably start making for a more expensive lig.

IIRC twisting was not a problem I ever had with mine, though the way I often hold the reed on the table when tightening any lig would tend to prevent the reed from moving sideways.

 

[Reedscraper]

I had 3 of them and used them for awhile. Yes, the lig does tend to twist the reed but all you have to do is pinch the sides of the reed with thumb and forefinger while tightening. It's quick and easy. What I liked about it was the lig tightened on the reed the same every time. No over tightening or getting to loose.

 

[vbluesman]

Wow... I use mine mostly with hard rubber mouthpieces, alto, tenor and baritone. The one size fits all concept is laughable using those pads but I've gigged on mine with cane reeds with no problems.

 

[click]

... Yes, the lig does tend to twist the reed but all you have to do is pinch the sides of the reed with thumb and forefinger while tightening. ...

Well, maybe that as all that YOU have to do.

I ended up battling the device all the time, including every time I adjusted the mpc for tuning.

It was the opposite of quick and easy.

I might have had better luck if I had kept to using it with one mpc.

Since I used it with lots of mpcs, perhaps it got quirky from adjusting to the various slopes.

 

[Guto]

@click, same here. Even when I did not notice the reed move I was always stressing out whether it did. I’m thankful Lakey took mine back within their trial period for a full refund.

But I’m glad some people like them. I’m not feeling so bad for St Louie’s Music for being fooled into acquiring the IP for these ligatures anymore. IMO life is too short to deal with things badly engineered, especially when they are also expensive.

 

[nvilletele]

I got one some years ago when it was being offered for $10 or $15 but never got beyond trying to get it to work. It seems to me to be a pretty lousy lig, much more hassle than it is worth. I had the same issues as click and Guto.