[Dog Pants]

Wailin,

Just picked up a box of the RJS 3M unfiled. I just got home and opened them up. Looks wise, I'm sceptical. 7/10 have dark "pith?" running the length of the reed. I'm prepping the other three as I write, so I'll give them a go and post my findings.
FWIW, I went with the 3M (down from the Rico 4's I was using) just to give myself an easier time this week. I have a few full days of "Band Camp" to teach and to top it off, my Buescher gave up the ghost on Friday. I'll use my Conn "Chu" Alto, (time for pinky surgery again ) and I'm hoping the softer reeds will not only give me an easier time of it, but also help tame the volume because I'll be playing alongside young kids on 4C mpc's with 1.5 reeds.
The RJS seem, on looks alone, to have a decent amount of heart to them, but I'll post more when I've played them a little.

 

[Dog Pants]

Ok, end of the week and my first impressions of the RJS. As I said above, I went for the 3M unfiled. In retrospect, I should have gone for the 3H or even the 4S.
I found the RJS to play on the soft side of what they are listed as. As I said in my earlier post, I was actually looking for something a bit softer, but these are too soft by far.
Sound: Sound was fine at normal volumes. When I wanted to push the volume, I got not much at all. The Buescher was in the shop for a re-pad
so I was using the Conn "Chu" with a Selmer Scroll shank. Usually I play 4's on this mpc so the 3M was just too soft. Tone was pretty flexible, but that should be a given on a softish reed. The Concert Band blend was easy to achieve, but the Eddie Vinson preaching sound just wasn't there with these.
Response: This was a good test. The kids are doing a lot of Old Time Rock and Roll tunes. Simple lines, with a lot of fast staccato hits, a la "Rock around the clock" etc. The RJS responded well enough to keep up with school band tempos but anyone playing uptempo funk might want to consider something else. I often play on Plasticovers and the difference in response between the two is phenomenal. I'm going to be generous and put it down to the reeds being too soft. Even so, after a week, the reeds are noticeably less responsive.
Quality and Consistency: I got a box of 10. In that box, 7 out of the 10 reeds have a dark "skid mark" of fibre running the length of the reed. It's good to know Rico are still using the same Quality Assurance test.

Overall, I was disappointed with the RJS 3M but I'm willing to reserve judgement until I've tried some 3H reeds. I had one experienced player tell me that they're a so-so, not great reed and to only ever get the H strength. I'll try the RJS 3H, but really, I 'm starting to think that reed maker ought to just make a good basic reed in consistent strengths and leave all the fine tuning to the player. I've never had so many dud reeds as lately with all the "gimmicky" "ribbed for her pleasure" stuff the reed makers seem to be coming out with. Just give me a decent bloody reed from a good piece of cane and let me do the adjusting.

 

[Dog Pants]

Dogpants, At the end of the day it's about finding the shoe that fits each player's individual "feet".

I take it you play on a closed mpc?

Wailin', The answer is "yes and no." This was an Alto job. I usually play a JJ "Classic" (the blue ones) that's been refaced and opened up to about a 7. I play 3's or 3.5's on this setup. For teaching schoolkids, it's a little too much. So I was playing on the Scroll Shank which I usually play 4's on. The RJS 3M was an easy blow and given that I coaught the "FLU" from one of the kids, as expected, I was grateful for that. I hope I was clear in stating that I'm not dissing the RJS as such. I'll try the 3H and see hoe they are.The 3M was just too soft. The reason I decided to give the RJS a try was that so many blokes seem to love them. The right strength reed might be a good match for the Selmer. Based on this experience, I'd suggest erring on the side of buying a harder reed strength than you think you might need.