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What do you think of the Vandoren v16 rubber mouthpiece and the optimum ligature?
Vandoren V16
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Joined
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I use that combo on both alto and tenor. I love it on alto - I had been using a Rovner and the switch to Optimum made a surprisingly profound difference.
For the price, the V16 is a great mouthpiece. I play-tested (new) Links, (new) Meyers, a Barone, and some others I've forgotten. The V16 bested them all. Sassy without being obnoxious. Excellent projection.
On tenor, I think the combo is solid, but not revolutionary. That said, I've had them a couple months and my tone continues to evolve in a positive direction so I'm happy about that.
For tenor I was using a metal Link and found it really lacking. I wanted a significant upgrade, but didn't want to launch into the land of $250+ mouthpieces. The V16 was great - $100 to sound like the Link but fatter and a touch of edge.
A word of caution - get singles of a few different reeds from your local music store. On both alto and tenor, I'm using Rico Jazz Select. Vandoren Java was thoroughly lackluster and regular Vandorens were too tough (even though they were fine on Meyer or C*). When the right reed hits, the mouthpiece will pop!
For the price, the V16 is a great mouthpiece. I play-tested (new) Links, (new) Meyers, a Barone, and some others I've forgotten. The V16 bested them all. Sassy without being obnoxious. Excellent projection.
On tenor, I think the combo is solid, but not revolutionary. That said, I've had them a couple months and my tone continues to evolve in a positive direction so I'm happy about that.
For tenor I was using a metal Link and found it really lacking. I wanted a significant upgrade, but didn't want to launch into the land of $250+ mouthpieces. The V16 was great - $100 to sound like the Link but fatter and a touch of edge.
A word of caution - get singles of a few different reeds from your local music store. On both alto and tenor, I'm using Rico Jazz Select. Vandoren Java was thoroughly lackluster and regular Vandorens were too tough (even though they were fine on Meyer or C*). When the right reed hits, the mouthpiece will pop!
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