A Guide to Current Vandoren Single Reed Products 2016

A Guide to Current Vandoren Single Reed Products 2016

Vandoren make a truly remarkable range of top quality products for the clarinettist and saxophonist. So much so that perhaps a little additional background might be useful when considering which choices might be right for your set-up and style.

For the manufacturer's explanation I recommend a visit to the main Vandoren website where their many products and much additional specification information, artists, news and images may be found.

www.vandoren-en.com

For UK and European ordering of Vandoren reeds I am pleased to be able to recommend visiting:

www.reeds-direct.co.uk for their unrivaled stock and service.

For information and ordering any of the wide range of Vandoren accessories I would like to recommend visiting:

www.vanbleu.com

For my summary and opinions - stay right here!

For each of the reed products the Vandoren website offer their intentions and design details. I find that these are sometimes difficult to decipher and I have developed my own, deliberately short, and hopefully memorable, characteristic tone and performance descriptions. I hope they might help and I encourage all players to try the logical options for them - as I have - and see what these fine reeds can offer.

For clarinet reeds the range now extends to 5 products:

Traditional - Brilliant, with great attack
V12 - Flexible, woody and warm
56 Rue Lepic - Dark, centred and stable
V21 - Response with warmth
and the quality student reed by Vandoren, the Juno - Reliable, easy play

For saxophone reeds the range extends to 8 products:

Traditional - Brilliant, with great attack
Java - Flexible and round
Red Java - Responsive, flexible and bright
V12 - Flexible, woody and warm
V16 - Punchy with edge and projection
ZZ - Flexible, responsive and characterful
V21 - Response with warmth
and the quality student reed Juno, by Vandoren - Reliable, easy play

All the above reed designs are manufactured using the same top quality cane - their different performance is due to the variety of profile used in the cut, the thickness of the tube of the cane used, the thinness of the reed tip, the taper of the blank and the amount of cane left in the heart and spine.

All the above reeds are, of course, available in different strengths, and the effectiveness of the match to the mouthpiece being used and the playing approach of the player are critical factors in the performance and successful use of any reed. An incorrect reed  cut or strength match will compromise the intended performance without any doubt. While it is true to say that a successful match is an individual choice there are some generalizations, based upon likely use and type of mouthpiece match that may help. I am attempting to place these on a spectrum of likely successful use - bearing in mind that narrower tip openings demand stronger strength reeds where as larger tip openings will generally require softer strength reeds - medium tip openings can match most strengths and cuts. The characteristic use (C) - Classical, (J) Jazz is shown at the far left of each line.

Use      Narrow Tip Opening          Medium Tip Opening       Wide Tip Opening 

(C)/(J)       Traditional --------------------------------------------------------------------                     
(C)      V12 --------------------------------------------                                                                 
(C)               V56 ------------------------------------------
(J)                                       Java --------------------------------------------------------- 
(J)                                       Red Java----------------------------------------------------                 
(J)                       V16 ----------------------------------------------------------                             
(J)                                       ZZ -------------------------------------------------------       
(C)            V21 --------------------------------------------------------                             
(C)                                           Juno ----------------------------------------                                     


I hope the short summaries above will prove useful. It certainly helps me to keep all these products clearer in my mind when I am advising pupils or customers.

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The comments above are the result of many years of providing help and advice, my personal interest and study, and the teaching that I have done during my career. I have many colleagues and teachers to thank for sharing their thoughts and suggestions on this and other topics. In addition I am indebted to Woodwind & Reed, Cambridge ( www.wwr.co.uk ) where, in the course of helping customers, many of these concepts have been refined and have proven helpful.
Thomas Dryer-Beers