they are bright reeds, alright. i find them to be too bright for me on my link. they seem well made though and fairly consistent.

 

Are they any easier to get sound out of? Regular Marcas give that grainy, forced, "first-year student in a Rascher program" tone.

 

im using marca jazz 3.5 on my STM link...and they are great - compared to V16's i find them to give me much more warmer, rounder and fuller sound...

 

Are they any easier to get sound out of? Regular Marcas give that grainy, forced, "first-year student in a Rascher program" tone.

yeah, i found them easy to get a sound from. it was just that for my tastes, it was too bright.

 

To respond to some questions

1. I found the Marca Jazz to blow easily on my BD Hollywood, but have enough resistance left I could push them a lot and they'd respond. V16 that are strong enough for this piece would tire me out and not respond well.

2. Marca Jazz feel like a very good normal jazz reed, unlike the the regular Marca which never quite seemed right for me either on alto or tenor. Regular Marcas are good for clarinet and ok for soprano, but be careful as they run VERY hard. Steve Lacy liked them on soprano.

On some mpcs I found the Marca Jazz to chirp, like Superials do for me sometimes.

 

hmmm. when you say regular marcas, which ones do you mean - cause they got a lot of different models: student, excel, premium, tradition, superior... i ve only tried excel on tenor&alto and they worked well and surprisingly, all the reeds from the box played ok. however, as i said, i prefer excel on alto and jazz on tenor....

 

When I bought them, they only had one model. Then the Jazz came out, followed by all these others! So I'm confused too.

 

That's basically what I use good ol' La Voz reeds for. How do the Marca Jazz compare to them?

 

Aha-what I called the regular Marcas are the Superior (Superiere?) For a long time that's all you could buy in the USA. Marca Jazz feel more lively to me than a LaVoz and their tips don't seem to die as quickly.

 

I agree, marcas are very durable, i think they last twice as v16's...But thats just my IMHO

 

Brutlix, what were the Excels like?

 

Like I said, they worked great on my alto, giving somewhat desmondish sound, however I prefer 'Jazz' on my tenor better than 'Excel'...But i've only tried excels up to 2.5. Maybe harder ones are more likeable..I certainly think they're worth a shot...

 

Having played through a box of Marca Jazz, they are consistent, which both good and bad. The good is they all had about the same strength and response the first time I played them. The bad is that they didn't play well on a 2nd attempt, and by the 3rd time they were dead.

They remind me of the Marca Pete Fountain clarinet reeds, lively with good projection right out of the box, but then never play again. I wouldn't mind this if they were cheap.

 

I had Marca Jazz 2.5's on my Lawton 7* and they played fine repeatedly.

 

Where does one fine these reeds? The only place I have found so far is Weiner Music but I can't figure out how to select 2 1/2's.

 

Either call Weiner and ask them to get Marca Jazz reeds in the strength you want or try these sites:

http://www.gleblanc.com/accessories/query.cfm?key=Marca_Jazz

http://www.intlmusicalsuppliers.com/pdf/WWSAXRD.PDF

http://reeds.woodwindandreed.co.uk/pages/brands.html

 

You might try sending Weiner Music and email so they can answer personally.

We send them to a guy in California about every other month. He's written that he's tried to get them from Leblanc. If we don't hear from him this month, maybe he's finally found a reliable source.

 

They remind me of the Marca Pete Fountain clarinet reeds, lively with good projection right out of the box, but then never play again. I wouldn't mind this if they were cheap.

Not my experience at all with the Pete Fountain reeds. In my experience, most of the reeds (3s) were durable players.

 

I love them! The regulars or whatever they are called were much more durable than the ZZ's that I am playing. They do run Very hard. I tried a three and couldn't make a single sound, but then I tried a 2 1/2 and it plays amazing! I hope to soon play the 'Jazz.'