[Monkish]

Hi. I wonder if the old rico reeds that many great saxophonist as Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and hank Mobley used are pretty similar with the current rico royal reeds. If not what reed do you think fit the best with the old rico reed? Thank you

 

[Grumps]

No. The current Rico Royal reeds are complete and utter garbage. I had loads of old boxes of them that I had hoarded and played them for decades, but when I ran out a couple of years ago I had to try their latest offerings. I was lucky to find one playable reed out of three boxes. Others who have played them for as long as I will tell you the same. Some trace the decline to the purchase of the company by D'Addario; a guitar string maker. I now use Alexander Superials and have had good experiences with them over the last year or so.

 

[retread]

In contrast. LaVoz seem to be a least as good, maybe better now (or maybe I've been lucky).

 

[Mike F]

No. The current Rico Royal reeds are complete and utter garbage. I had loads of old boxes of them that I had hoarded and played them for decades, but when I ran out a couple of years ago I had to try their latest offerings. I was lucky to find one playable reed out of three boxes. Others who have played them for as long as I will tell you the same. Some trace the decline to the purchase of the company by D'Addario; a guitar string maker. I now use Alexander Superials and have had good experiences with them over the last year or so.

Grumps, I had exactly the same experience. I'm done with Rico now, and I'm on Vandoren's for SATB. I just find that the quality of cane and consistency is much better and (most importantly) I prefer the sound that I get with them.
Never tried Alexanders, so don't tempt me!

 

[retread]

Gonzalez is another good choice--similar price to Vandoren, but almost every reed in the box is good.

 

[gearaholic]

Back to the original topic, I know there used to be different "cuts" of Rico Reeds, represented by letters. The current orange-box Ricos are what used to be the "V" cut, I believe. I don't think any of the currently available models are based on the old cuts, but if there is anyone who knows about the old cuts, I would also be interested to know how close any modern reeds are to those old cuts.

 

[AMASAX]

seems i have a catalog somewhere advertising 'D cut' for Rico reeds. Caught my eye cuz only thing I've ever seen was the same 'V' cut stuff you referenced.
This catalog was from the 1940's, i believe, and my guess would be that by the 1960s or so, Rico had standardized on only the 'V' cut.
Never seen any other cut of the old Ricos, either.

 

[SaxyJ]

I recently bought Rico Royals as backups to the usual Hemkes that I use (Hemkes were out of stock in the local store.) They are okay, however, I noticed that they give me a thinner and brighter sound, a sound that I am definitely NOT aiming for (I like a dark, thick, rich and fat tone).