Legere Clarinet Reed

Yes these reeds are expensive, but my Legere reed lasted over a year. It was so nice to not have to worry about a reed not working or squeaking. The tone doesn’t sound quite as nice as wood reads, but it is very, very close. And not having to buy reeds for over a year, not having to moisten the reed before playing, and having the confidence that it’s going to sound & perform consistently EVERY time I put it on my clarinet is just wonderful. I only play my instrument twice a week, so take that into consideration in terms of the reed’s longevity.

I have been playing clarinet for just over a year. I became frustrated with the inconsistency of cane reeds and all the palaver of soaking them and breaking them in. I tried various brands of reed including Vandoren blue box, Vandoren V12, Rico and La Voz. I tried a Fibracell reed and this was an inprovement but the sound was a littel rough to my untutored ear! The Legere reed played straight out of the package and, with a little adjustment to my embouchure gives a good sound across the range and a quick response. At 67 I play for fun and will never grace the Albert Hall so this reed will do me fine and hopefully last long enough to be more economic than buying cane reeds.

Always been suspicious about trying one of these synthetic clarinet reeds as they are so expensive, one reed costs about the same as a box of cane reeds. But after trying many different types of reeds and getting a bad batch of late I took the plunge and brought a Legere student reed, alas these have been discontinued so will have to buy the standard next time at about £18.

The Legere reed is white to clear and looks not unlike a shirt collar stiffener but they play great every time, no sanding, scraping, soaking, rotating or breaking in required, line it up as you would with a cane reed then just play, no imbalance from side to side, no getting water logged or getting it broken in then it dies, splits or chips. It is said that a Legere reed is made with vibration properties much like cane, I think that it's better than cane, the best tone I have ever got, top to bottom. This is on a Yamaha 6c mouthpiece on a Yamaha YCL250 clarinet with synthetic pads so I have gone right off the standard of late and I think My playing is passable. I wish that Yamaha had included a Legere reed in the box it would have saved me a small fortune in reeds and a lot of flustration at times. It's said that these reeds last months as opposed to weeks but I can't yet comment on this. The Legere sounds better to me than a blue box Vandoren, that's with me on the other end, of course there are clarinettists that would sound better than me on a plank perhaps but the Legere suits me, more time practicing and less time swapping reeds and my lip does not tire as much, can play now for two hours at a stretch.