Review of Legere Reeds
Tom Schilling
A little background on me and my experience is warrented. I have been playing clarinet since 5th grade, approximately 52 years. I added tenor sax in high school and college and gifted myself a soprano sax in 2014. I’m not a professional musician; actually I worked as a physicist for 37 years – now retired. I chose degrees in physics and mathematics instead of music. Nonetheless, I continued playing just for myself. As my career in physics grew, my hobby time could be small. Working on reeds could take almost all of my available time. I read about the various synthetic reeds, but I was dubious of the claims. I finally decided to try a Legere clarinet reed about 10 years ago.
That +/- $30 experiment was a winner! Yes, I considered the purchase an experiment, after all I’m a scientist. It was a little hard, but the tone was spot on. I wanted to better understand why. The experiment became more rigorous. I played a wide variety of notes into a spectrum analyzer, using first the best cane reed I had then the Legere. The harmonics of the synthetic and cane reeds were similar. So I verified quantitatively, what my ear was hearing, the qualitative measurement. Given that a clarinet is a straight tube, open at one end, closed (periodically) at the other, and taking into account experimental error, quantitative measurements showed they were the same. And, most importantly, the Legere reed played the same in response and dynamics. So the cane reeds for the clarinet were replaced with Legere reeds.
Shortly thereafter, I did the same experiment on the tapered brass tube, open at one end, closed (periodically) at the other – aka a tenor sax. Same results and I qualitatively liked the tone of the Legere reeds more than the cane. At this point I was using only the Legere Classic and Signature cut series. Soon the soprano sax was equipped with Classic cut reeds too.
This brings me to the first reason I have switched exclusively to the Legere reeds – I spend more time playing and entertaining myself than fixing reeds. They just play out of the box! I can switch between instruments without the worry of a reed drying-out or warping. When I order a replacement reed of the same strength, it arrives with the same characteristics as the previous. Variance is nearly undetectable to me. My fun-time has increased!
Another plus for Legere reeds, my cost for reeds has gone down. This has never really been an issue, but it is noticeable. I did wear-out a few Signature cut reeds on for my tenor sax, but it took a lot of playing. I used to open a box of cane reeds and try to find the good ones, fix the pretty good ones, and then hope the others could be used for something. With Legere reeds, I open the box and say to myself, that’s a good reed.
I do have some favorites. I realize that reeds are very subjective in spite of my attempt measure acoustic charactertics.
1. Clarinet: I have tried the Signature and Classic cuts. Both sound great, but I prefer the darker, more resistant Classic cut. The 3.00 strength Classic cut on my Borbeck 13 mouthpiece works well. The 3.00 strength Signature cut has great response, but the Classic cut has the bigger sound I enjoy.
2. Soprano sax: A 3.75 strength Classic cut on a Selmer C* mouthpiece has a dark solid tone that I love. Good response through the range with solid high notes, which can be weak with cane reeds. I also like to play the Signature cut 2.50 strength Signature cut on my Otto Link 7*. The projection of this combination is remarkable. My dog loves this combination. He pushes my office door open, walks in and lays down. Absolutely amazes me and my wife. I have just purchased a 2.75 strength American cut. The tone is a little brighter than the classic cut. It has a sweet tone that allows me to play ppp or fff while staying in tune. Articulation is terrific; very delicate. This is the new favorite for soprano sax. My plan is to order some additional American cut reeds and put them in rotation as I do with my tenor sax.
3. Tenor sax: I have played a variety of strengths in the Classic, Signature, Studio, French, and American cuts. All of these are played on a Meyer 7* mouthpiece. All of the reeds performed as advertised by Legere, but I have favorites. The Studio cut with a 3.00 strength lets the low notes just pop-out and the altissimo stays well in tune. I have four of these reeds now that I cycle around. I just received the 2.75 strength American cut for my tenor sax. As with the soprano sax, the tone on the tenor is a little brighter than the Studio cut, and similarly the delicacy of the articulation is so good. The overtones seem to be easier to hit and control, in increasing order or “bugling.” I can play the fundamental (Bb) and usually six overtones (Ab). I can almost always get the fundamental and four or five overtones with the Studio or French cuts, but the Ame...
