Testing 3 Top Saxophone Ligatures

➡ www.thomashaehnlein.com
➡ / thomas_saxophone
There is not much talk about saxophone ligatures. But they are an important part of your setup to balance out weaknesses of your mouthpiece, improve your sound on the saxophone and make it more enjoyable to play. In this video, I'm comparing the Francois Louis Pure Brass, the Borgani Flexitone and the Selmer SM ligatures. And I'm giving tips how you can find the perfect ligature for yourself.
#saxophone #saxophoneligature #musiceducation

[@hansmathiasthjomoe4817]

When you expect a difference, you get a difference.

[@davidclaro152]

Thank you very much for your video on ligatures. I never really understood the importance of them, other than to hold your reed. I liked the last two, but I think the Borgani might be troublesome to use at first.

[@markwhite-what-da-jazz]

The Francois Lois mouthpiece cap with the felt that you showed is actually my favorite because that felt keeps the reed wet. This is important to me because I am always doubling on gigs and I need my reed to stay wet if I put the instrument down for 10 or 20 minutes. I use that mouthpiece cap on all of my reed instruments. My favorite ligatures are the Jewel Eddie Daniels Expressions ligatures and the Brancher wire ligatures and a $15 plastic ring ligature made by JScustomsaxophone that is the best ligature I have found for my bari sax... I have the expensive ligatures also for my bari sax, but this cheap plastic ring ligature works the best on my bari. Some reed players have no idea of the importance of the ligature. This is because the difference between many ligatures is nonexistent. You will actually not feel or hear any difference between many ligatures, like Thomas explained (and one of those ligatures might be perfect for your mouthpiece). My eye-opening experience to the difference in some ligatures is when I tried the Marc Jean ligature with the grenadila wood contact. This was the most free reed vibrating ligature I ever tried. Then I realized ring ligatures also let the reed vibrate freely, but it's difficult to fit ring ligatures correctly. The two-channel design ligatures are very free blowing... I like them more than the plate design. The cheapest well-made two-channel design ligature I have found is the Rovner Versa. If you are super picky about your sound, you will even use different ligatures for different mouthpieces and different reeds and different acoustics. I like to use darker sounding ligatures for brighter sounding mouthpieces and/or brighter sounding reeds. I like to use my brighter sounding ligatures with darker sounding mouthpieces and/or darker sounding reeds. The darkest sounding ligatures are the fabric type ligatures that wrap the mouthpiece and reed with fabric or some kind of soft material. My favorite slightly dark sounding ligature that I use on my bright sounding mouthpieces is the Jewel Eddie Daniels Expressions ligature with the carbon fiber contact... this ligature is very free blowing, but also slightly darkens the sound. On my warmer sounding mouthpieces, I love the Eddie Daniels Expressions ligature with the gold contact and I love the Brancher wire ligature and the Rovner Versa is another great choice for dark sounding mouthpieces.

[@kingwilliamjazzcollective301]

It’s not the difference in sound. It’s the response that you the player feels. Your sound is in you head. You will gravitate to that sound no matter the equipment. Thus, play what feels good and responsive.

[@nicolaycunha]

Amazing! I am also a big fan of Joe Henderson... try bringing some content from him.

[@yoganisse]

If the selmer ligature comes loose, you can do as I did, unscrew the screw and file in between to make the opening a little bigger. Good luck, and keep up the good work. 🙏

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

Thanks for the tip!

[@DJM626]

Good choices, but my personal fave ligatures that I have been using for years are the Marc Jean ligatures. Theses are on the high end of the price spectrum but well worth it as Marc is always making improvements

[@ME-rz6en]

same for me

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

Interesting! I believe they’re not really available in Germany (or even Europe?)

[@erichiss2470]

Rampone & Cazzani "Chubby" which is made from olive wood is very open sounding - for a darker sound I like a Silverstein - a good all-rounder is the 24 carat gold BG

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

Interesting, hadn’t heard of the Rampone & Cazzani one yet

[@Chris-zc8jg]

What are your thoughts on the Vandoren Optimum?

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

I’ve tried it some time ago and had the feeling it’s a very good ligature, easy to use and practical. If I remember correctly it’s making the sound a little darker and adds a bit of stability

[@mslourenco100]

the best

[@mslourenco100]

Hi, what is teh openning nº of you Soloist MP?

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

It’s a “G” tip opening, I believe this is similar to an Otto Link 6*

[@mslourenco100]

@@ThomasHaehnlein Ok. I have a short shank G too ;) (refaced by Brian Powell). Thnks for your videos

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

@mslourenco100 oh I’d love a short shank, unfortunately so far I could only find long shanks

[@stevel6895]

Yeah, I don't know how Lester Young, Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt and a host of others got along on those basic two screw cheap ligatures they used? Just think how great they would have sounded on one of these $200 ligatures! The primary job of a ligature is to clamp the reed securely on the mouthpiece, that's it! If you think it effects your sound then it does, but, only you can hear it, no one else can. If you've got money to burn then have at it!

[@ichbinmartin]

Neverending story. Yes, ligature matters. The only one purpose of the ligature is hold the reed on the proper place. Broken or bad designed ligature cannot, so this is the only difference. Does not matter, if it is standard, special, for 10 euro or for 300e. Look at the old saxophone masters. Literally every one used the cheapest standard ligature! There is really no technical reason to buy anything more expensive, if Coltrane, Rollins, Getz, Brecker... could use the standard one. But there is lot of people believing in snake oil.

[@stevel6895]

I couldn't agree more!