[zxcvbnm]

How do these reeds compare in terms of feel, response, resistance, tone, edgyness, etc. Also, which ones are usually more consistent? Thanks.

 

[dstack79]

You're not going to get any consensus, but here's my 2 cents:

I've never, ever met a Java that I liked. Every single one of them sounded dull, stuffy, wobbly and out of tune. It wasn't a strength issue either. Granted, I've only tried 3 boxes...but shldn't I get at least one that was reasonable?

The RSJ are pretty good reeds, but not as consistent as other offerings from Vandoren like ZZ/V-16. When I get a good one, they actually have a nice balanced sound. Not too bright, not dark. About 2/5 work for me.

-Dan

 

[LateNiteSax]

You're not going to get any consensus, but here's my 2 cents:

I've never, ever met a Java that I liked. Every single one of them sounded dull, stuffy, wobbly and out of tune. It wasn't a strength issue either. Granted, I've only tried 3 boxes...but shldn't I get at least one that was reasonable?

The RSJ are pretty good reeds, but not as consistent as other offerings from Vandoren like ZZ/V-16. When I get a good one, they actually have a nice balanced sound. Not too bright, not dark. About 2/5 work for me.

-Dan

Originally Posted by LateNiteSax
2 out of 5 sucks. Try buying slightly hard reeds, wet them, and then sand them down a hair to your liking by moving the heart of the reed BACK a drop, thereby giving you something in between a med and a med-hard. You will get WAY more reeds to play out of a box- maybe 8 or 9 instead of 3 or 4- if you take a few seconds to do this with 220 wet or dry sandpaper.

 

[dstack79]

Originally Posted by LateNiteSax
2 out of 5 sucks. Try buying slightly hard reeds, wet them, and then sand them down a hair to your liking by moving the heart of the reed BACK a drop, thereby giving you something in between a med and a med-hard. You will get WAY more reeds to play out of a box- maybe 8 or 9 instead of 3 or 4- if you take a few seconds to do this with 220 wet or dry sandpaper.

Thanks LateNite, but believe me I've tried it. I play on 3 or 3 1/2's and they often feel pretty firm out of the box, which is what I'm after. I do sand them if they're too hard. However, if they're just generally bad (not just too hard), then nothing I do seems to work. I'm just really anal I guess :!:
-Dan

 

[EgilF.]

- different players, mpc´s, saxes, etc:

Originally Posted by dstack79
I've never, ever met a Java that I liked. Every single one of them sounded dull, stuffy, wobbly and out of tune. It wasn't a strength issue either. Granted, I've only tried 3 boxes...but shldn't I get at least one that was reasonable?

The RSJ are pretty good reeds, but not as consistent as other offerings from Vandoren like ZZ/V-16. When I get a good one, they actually have a nice balanced sound. Not too bright, not dark. About 2/5 work for me

I've never, ever met a RSJ that I liked. Every single one of them sounded dull, stuffy, wobbly and out of tune. It wasn't a strength issue either. Granted, I've only tried 3 boxes...but shldn't I get at least one that was reasonable?

---------
I tried the RSJ on tenor Guardala MBII, Dukoff 7M, on alto JJ classic 8 and alto Claude Lakey. The RSJ works on the JJ, but on all the other mpc´s it´s only vandoren (java/reg/zz) that suits me.
One could purchase a lot of different reed brands and start testing, - I did... it become very expensive, and I ended up with the brand I have played for the last 25 years.....

 

[daigle65]

...Every single one of them sounded dull, stuffy, wobbly and out of tune...

How can a reed be out of tune :?

 

[dstack79]

How can a reed be out of tune :?

I dunno.... I suppose the same way some reeds just plain sound bad.

On some reeds, it's difficult for me to lock in on the center of a pitch and tone. Am I the only one who notices different pitch tendencies from reed to reed?

 

[daigle65]

A reed that is the wrong strength for you will make you play out of tune, but not a particular cut of reed.

 

[hakukani]

I've never met a reed I liked, but I seem to be able to make most brands useable.

 

[dstack79]

A reed that is the wrong strength for you will make you play out of tune, but not a particular cut of reed.

I'm not necessarily saying it was the cut that was the culprit. Usually when a reed is giving me problems like this it's because the cane is spongy and not resilient. No amount of adjusting seems to do anything for cane like this.

-Dan

 

[Pgraves]

I dunno.... I suppose the same way some reeds just plain sound bad.

On some reeds, it's difficult for me to lock in on the center of a pitch and tone. Am I the only one who notices different pitch tendencies from reed to reed?

I notice it too, but it maybe because some are more sensitive to embrouchure pressure than other. May really just boil down to reed firmness,
and embrouchure pressure.

 

[MM]

No question, the reed strength and response will affect how easy or difficult it is to play in tune. First of all, you are accustomed to playing reeds of a certain strength and likely have the amount of embouchure pressure needed to be in tune more or less "dialed in." Of course you must adjust to the ensemble but likely you're sorta close already....but only with what is a "normal" reed to you. Second, if the reed is unresponsive, you go through embouchure contortions just to get the note to speak, leaving little room for fine-tuning the pitch.

There have been some studies that a softer reed tends to pull the higher notes lower in pitch...something about the oscillation modes of a reed and tune with loss. I assume this would be for a given small amount of embouchure pressure, because softer reeds also make it easier to bend the pitch. So it you tend to bite on the high notes, you may actually go too sharp if your reed is too soft.

I've also notice that it is tough to play in tune on a synthetic reed if I haven't used one for a while. Fibracells on higher instruments such as clarinet are weird. Rather than die like a cane reed, they just gradually get flatter.

 

[Tenortones]

v-16's

Vandoren V-16's/dull knife

 

[sopranosaxman]

The only horn I think the RJS are good on is bari. When I tried them on alto and tenor they seemed very stuffy and bland even after sanding them down. I think the Java's are better, but I don't use those anymore either. I've moved on to Alexander DC's for now and they seem like much better reeds. The weirdest experience I've had with a certain reed playing way out of tune is with australia vintage reeds on my alto. For some reason they played a half step sharp on B3 it was really weird. I finally concluded that it must be because the vamp was so short on them and it was some how effecting the pitch. On all other reeds the vamp is a lot longer and it's a very noticeable difference not just a small one. Besides those reeds though I've never really experienced another that played so out of tune.