Good news - Rico says there has been no design change, and they will examine the reeds to determine what happened. Turns out that both new boxes I had were that way. I did have one new box of the 'old' ones, so everything's cool for now.
D'Addario needs to stop calling them Ricos. Their product today is an affront to a great company that once was.1saxman said:If RICO can't control their process any better than this, they need to stop calling these reeds 'Select' and lower the price.