The Bassic Sax Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Fibracell’

For more than a decade now I’ve been a loyal Fibracell user. I loved their product, and wouldn’t think of switching back to cane reeds for any reason. Then a few years ago Fibracell introduced their Premier reeds, and all that changed.

I found the Premier Fibracell didn’t work for me. The strength I had been using for years, 2 ½, was considerably harder than the older numbered version. I have mouthpieces that the Premier reeds do work on, but I find they do not respond the same way. The Premier Fibracells tend to be stuffier and darker in sound. Your milage my vary, and likely will, but that has been my experience with them. Bottom line: I wasn’t impressed.

The main disadvantage of the Fibracell reeds is that they should not be worked on, because of the Kevlar fibers that are suspended in the resin. If you sand or clip a Fibracell, you expose the Kevlar fibers. These are then quite painful when they cut into your lip. MIRI, the company that makes Fibracell, tells customers that rather than attempting to work on the reeds, they should buy either softer or harder reeds.

Luckily I had bought many older Fibracells for S, A, T, B, & B from Charlie A’s before he passed away. I had more in my stash than most music stores carry in their stock. However, I’m now running low on tenor reeds, so for the last few months I’ve been doing some research, and have tried to find an alternative synthetic reed.

I had heard a lot of good things about the Canadian reed company Légère. I was cautiously hopeful, but from the reading I had done, I suspected I might not like the tone. I wondered if it wouldn’t be too dark and classical sounding for my playing style and tastes. Sure enough, it was.

However, I have since learned that Légère has a new Studio Cut version out that is supposed to be brighter. It might be worth a try, but I wish I could try one before I buy it.

Unfortunately, Légère also recommends that customers not work on their reeds. I’m not sure why exactly, but they do.

Another company that doesn’t get talked about as much, but intrigued me, was Fiberreed by Harry Hartmann of Germany. I did some research, and couldn’t find a Canadian source for these reeds. Even in the States, suppliers of this reed are quite limited. WWBW, and the various stores connected to it, are the most likely place to find a Fiberreed.

Unfortunately I am one of the people who has been burned by WWBW in the past, and that was before all the delays in shipping we read about today. Therefore, I decided to pay the extra few dollars and order directly from Harry himself.

Since there is no strength comparison chart for the Fiberreed anywhere, I had to email Harry to ask about the right strength. He and I have had a number of email exchanges, so I feel I owe it to him to buy from him directly. He seems like a very nice and up-front guy… Not to mention he is located just outside of my old stomping grounds: Stuttgart. It turns out we both moved to Stuttgart around the same time in the early ’80s.

Of all the synthetics out there, the Fiberreed gives you the most choices. There are 4 types of reeds available, which are aimed at giving you different sounds. For what I want, the Carbon Fiberreed will be the optimal choice. According to the Fiberreed website, this reed is a: “High-Tech carbon fiber with hollow fiber connect full sound, [for a] direct response and a beaming upper register.”

A big advantage with these reeds is that you can work on them if they are too hard or too soft. This, in my books, gives them an advantage over both Légère and Fibracell.

Yesterday, I ordered a tenor and an alto Carbon Fiberreed  in medium strength. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, because I really would like them to work for me. I have no desire to go back to the inconsistencies of cane. I just want to play sax, and not fiddle with my reeds.

© 2009, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.

For years woodwind players been have bemoaning the fact that the reeds we’ve been buying have been getting worse in quality. There have been many theories as to why this might be, but I’m not going to get into those here. You can always check out some of the reed discussions on SOTW for more info on the topic. SOTW members have lots of theories.

For many players, myself included, inconsistencies in cane reeds, their overall poor quality, and/or the fiddling required to get them to play right, has led them to switch to synthetic reeds. There are a number of synthetic reed options out there. Here are a few…

Fibracell reeds. My personal favourite.

Légère Studio Cut.

Harry Hartmann’s Fiberreed. I haven’t tried one, mainly due to their more expensive price.

Bari reeds. These were the first synthetic reeds I tried. I used them for a year or 2 before I switched over to the Fibracells.

I switched to Fibracell over 10 years ago, and couldn’t be happier. Not only do they save me money because they last much longer than cane, but the reeds are consistent. No fiddling required. Of all the synthetic reeds I’ve tried over the years, they also sound the most like true cane to my ears. YMMV of course. However, I can tell you I fool most sax players that I work with.

Reed trimmers, reed rush, a reed knife, and all the other paraphernalia I used to use are a thing of the past. Also because I usually double on multiple saxes in the bands I play with, no more dry reed worries for me since making the switch to synthetic reeds.

For players who wish to use conventional cane reeds, the choices seem to be endless. Here is a sampling of the current offerings…

Now, while some cane reed purists will argue that the best cane reeds come from France, a new study from their next door neighbour Germany, might make these cane reed lovers a little nervous.

According to an article published in The Local, Germany’s News In English, German researchers have discovered that cane is a renewable, cleaner-burning fuel that could be used to power decentralized power stations over much of the country. Reed energy could be the wave of the future.

Ah look out. Those cane fields might no longer be safe. Perhaps the cane will be clear cut to power small towns and subdivisions throughout Europe.

OK, so I’m pulling your chain a bit, but maybe it’s not too early to start stockpiling those cane reeds. They only get better with age anyway. And that’s a good thing.

© 2009, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.

I was sad to discover this AM that Charlie A’s website, gigdust.com, is no more. I know that since Charlie’s death a few years ago, his family had been trying to keep his business going, but things had not been working well there for some time. So the demise of gigdust.com is not really a surprise.

I first found out about Charlie in 2000 when I was in New Orleans, and Steve Goodson gave me some of Charlie A’s Gig Dust and Crud Patches. I had never heard of them, but after trying the products, I was hooked. They were amazing! I had never found anything that worked as well as those 2 things for curing and ultimately preventing sticking pads.

When I checked out Charlie’s site, I noticed he had great prices on Fibracell reeds. So I from 2000 onwards, I bought all my reeds, my Gig Dust, and Crud Patches directly from Charlie.

When Charlie began working on a new tenor saxophone mouthpiece, which ended up being called ”BBQ”, I was one of the players who play-tested the prototypes. When the the BBQ was available for purchase, Charlie sent me the one I had originally play-tested, because I had liked it so much, even in its unfinished state. I still have the piece, and it sounds great on my Martin. Once my 10M comes back from the shop, I’m looking forward to seeing how the BBQ will sound on it.

I was very saddened to hear of Charlie’s passing in April 2005. Now with the closure of his business, it really seems like the end of an era.

Although I did not know Charlie personally, and did not know him for many years, the time we did spend talking via email and on the phone, was very informative.

Since his BBQ mouthpieces were handmade, I don’t imagine that they will be available any longer. I assume that all remaining stock has now been sold.

Hopefully the manufacturing & distribution of Gig Dust and Crud Patches will continue, since they are available through places like WWBW, and a number of other retailers.

© 2008, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.