The Bassic Sax Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Légère’

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.

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