{"id":23550,"date":"2011-01-28T10:23:57","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T18:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=23550"},"modified":"2011-01-28T10:23:57","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T18:23:57","slug":"my-first-rehearsal-with-my-legere-signature-series-reeds-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2011\/my-first-rehearsal-with-my-legere-signature-series-reeds-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly\/","title":{"rendered":"My First Rehearsal With My L\u00e9g\u00e8re Signature Series Reeds: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night I had my first opportunity to use the L\u00e9g\u00e8re Signature Series reeds at rehearsal. After ordering them at my local Long & McQuade\u2014the day after my friend Ray introduced me to them<\/a>\u2014I had to wait a\u00a0week before the store could get them\u00a0in stock. I’ve been using them\u00a0at home\u00a0now since Monday, but last night had a chance to see what they would do in the electric environment of Deception<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ever since I started playing the reeds on Monday, I had started to notice some pretty major differences between the Fibracells and the Signature Series L\u00e9g\u00e8res. I decided however, to hold off writing about them until I had a chance to play them during our last rehearsal before this weekend’s show.<\/p>\n

Our last rehearsal before a show is always a straight run through like the show itself will be. Last night gave me the chance to test my new reeds out in the real world<\/em>, without the pressure of an audience, should things go sideways.<\/p>\n

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The first thing I noticed immediately upon slapping\u00a0the Signature Series on my mouthpiece, is how dark the reed is compared to a good<\/em> Fibracell. When I say the reed is dark<\/em>, I’m saying that the reed generates less overtones than the Fibracell, and more of the horn’s main\/core tone is present. (Check out this article of the 3 Aspects Of Tone<\/a>, to find out more about these concepts.) Perhaps this will change when the reed becomes worn in after a while. Perhaps it won’t. I will have to play on these reeds for a while to find out.<\/p>\n

Although I personally am not a fan of dark reeds\u2014if I was, I’d have been playing on them all along\u2014the advantage with the L\u00e9g\u00e8res is that they give you a fullness in the upper register that the Fibracells don’t give you.<\/p>\n

The Fibracells tend to become very thin in the higher end of the horn, and you have to be very aware of your embouchure and throat to ensure that you don’t close off your sound. With the L\u00e9g\u00e8res your sound stays full right through the palm keys and into the altissimo.<\/p>\n

The altissimo notes of course, speak very clearly with the Signature Series. G1 pops out like a conventional note, and my F#4 is always there as well. No fuss. No muss. I\u00a0don’t have to worry if I’m going to get\u00a0my high notes to speak. I remember a time when all cane reeds used to play this way… Ah yes… But digress…<\/p>\n

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The L\u00e9g\u00e8res have the ability to play altissimo so well, that last night I found myself overshooting the note quite a few times. Instead of F#4 for example, I ended up quite a bit higher. Don’t ask me where I ended up. I didn’t have the chance to figure things out, since we were going from song to song without breaks in between.<\/p>\n

After about 90 minutes of solid playing, I noticed I wasn’t able to hit my altissimo consistently. It happened during Fishnet <\/em>when I was going for an A3, and suddenly couldn’t get the note at all. Then I remembered something that Mal-2 mentioned in one of his comments here<\/a>, and also something that Ray told me upfront about the reeds: L\u00e9g\u00e8res get tired, and need to be replaced during a show. The reed still\u00a0sounded and responded fine over the rest of the range of the horn, but it was in the altissimo range that things went sideways.<\/p>\n

So to put things in a nice manageable package, here’s a chart that I’ve compiled from my limited perspective to date, of the Pros and Cons of the L\u00e9g\u00e8re Signature Series reeds. As time goes on, I’m sure this list will grow, and one thing or another might drop off. But for now, this is what I’ve noticed.<\/p>\n

I’m using the 2\u00bc tenor reeds on a vintage Dukoff S7, with a Rovner dark lig. The horn is my 1950 307XXX H.N. White King Zephyr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

L\u00e9g\u00e8re Signature Series Reeds<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Pros<\/td>\nCons<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Availability\u2014These reeds are currently in production.<\/td>\nDarker\u2014More core tone and less overtones present. Although many people would see this a “Pro”.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Very responsive over the entire range of the horn<\/td>\nHard to see the reed tip against silver mouthpieces.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Long lasting\u20144 reeds in rotation should last a year. (I\u2019m guessing @ this point.)<\/td>\nFussy with regards to ligature placement. If you don\u2019t have the Rovner’s fastening screw\u00a0placed exactly in the middle, the response is impeded and sound is compromised.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Can be worked on<\/td>\nIt is easy to overshoot the altissimo note you\u2019re aiming for. I assume in time this will become less of an issue as a person becomes familiar with the reed (?).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Company has a return program to ensure you get the right strength reed.<\/td>\nThe cost.\u00a0These reeds cost approx. $25 each… Or about $26.99 in Canada. (Which is pretty funny, since L\u00e9g\u00e8re is a Canadian company! WTF?)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Extremely easy altissimo<\/td>\nThe reeds “fatigue” easily, and need to be exchanged during a performance. I guess that’s what set breaks are for.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Overall very playable<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The L\u00e9g\u00e8re reeds definitely require a different approach than the Fibracells that I’ve used for over a decade. Now that I’ve got a number of hours on them, I feel confident enough\u00a0playing them that I will use them for\u00a0Deception’s<\/em>\u00a0show on Saturday. Because I’m super cautious though, I will still have a supply of really good Fibracells on hand, just in case things go sideways on me. Just call me paranoid. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span> My \u201creal\u201d <\/b> website is<\/span> www.bassic-sax.info.<\/a> If you\u2019re looking for <\/span> sax info<\/strong>,<\/span> you should check it out too.<\/span>There\u2019s lots<\/em> there! <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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Last night I had my first opportunity to use the L\u00e9g\u00e8re Signature Series reeds at rehearsal. After ordering them at my local Long & McQuade\u2014the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94],"tags":[41,43,620,104,259,143,239],"class_list":["post-23550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accessories-saxophone","tag-accessories","tag-blues-band","tag-deception","tag-fibracell","tag-legere","tag-reeds","tag-synthetic-reeds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t