Vandoren Alto Sax Reeds

When it comes to Vandoren reeds, when they are good, they play great and last a long time. When you have bad reeds, it is hard to play. Each box is very inconsistent when it comes to how many playable reeds there are in a box of 10. As a recent college saxophone graduate, I became more noticeable as to how unbalanced one reed might be. One side would be thicker than the other. In college, I learned how to adjust reeds with a reed knife and reed rush. I would suggest everyone learn this technique with Vandoren reeds. When I adjusted my reeds, I could get almost every reed in a box to play. Some reeds are still going to be hopeless. For the price, they are high quality reeds, but not all playable out of the box. I recommend these reeds to my students.

Ok, I have experienced all kinds of reeds: Chinese, Ricos, Vandorens, plastics, etc. So far, I found Vandoren Traditional to be the most consistent and reliable out of most reeds. The other Vandorens are more like specialties; traditional is just for everything. I lived with this reed (brand, of course) for my entire career of sax playing, and it helped me develop a thick embouchure (I use 4's now). This reed doesn't go too well with marching bands, since it doesn't produce a loud sound if your embouchure is in sync with the thickness. However, this reed is seriously recommended, because no reed is like it.

Vandorens are the only reeds that I will use no matter which saxophone I am playing--or even clarinet for that matter. However, they are very inconsistent and stubborn. Living where I do, the weather becomes an issue, but otherwise they do take some working in. A good sanding block and a right judge of the reed and you can make decent reeds out of any of them in the box.

If you are looking for a good box of reeds, this brand is definitely the best choice. They are good, consistent reeds that are of the highest quality. There are some bad reeds, but there are also some incredibly good reeds that you will find in a box of Vandoren reeds. I would recommend these to anyone who is looking for reeds .

These reeds are some of the most consistent available (I have played on just about every brand and variant of the brands imaginable), and you can play on any of them with minimal effort. Every now and then there will be one or two that just won't play, but a reed is natural, and you can't expect them all to work. The reason that the reeds are being given four stars is the packaging. Not only is it extremely wasteful (each reed is individually wrapped in foil), the box is just too large for practicality. The old box could fit in a shirt pocket or a pants pocket without a second though; this box really needs to stay in the sax case. The inconvenience of having sax reeds flying around inside the case makes it too much of a hassle to travel without the box, which just makes it difficult to deal with in general.