Olegatures
October 31, 2004 in Reviews
I have to admit, I have never been one to try out “gear” on sax or any instrument. Partly due to the satisfaction of what I already own, and partly due to not knowing if there is something better out there. Namely, I remember how I ended up with my Selmer Alto was because I tried it and found it better than what I had. Yeah…..anyways.
So, for years I’ve been using a Meyer mouthpiece on Alto with some no name generic POS ligature. I’ve been happy with it, but wasn’t happy with my alto sound on recordings (always sounded wimpy to me). So, in like March I tried a Harrison ligature, and noticed a HUGE difference in sound compared to the old ligature. I had been using the Harrison until I noticed a lot of guys using the Olegature, namely Jim Snidero using it on his Joe Henderson Tribute album. So, I decided to try it…..
First thing is that it looks cool. Seriously, it’s all gold and whatnot. But trying it, it plays great. I would never have thought it would be different than the Harrison one, but it is. I would call it “more consistent” or “more responsive” through out the horn. I didn’t believe it, and I did a little recording test, and I could hear the difference.
Ok, so, I kept it. But then I noticed it would fit on my Rubber Berg on Tenor. So, tried it on my Tenor. Whoa. Similar results, except I noticed that the low end of the horn was a lot easier to hit and sounded better compared to the standard Berg Larsen ligature.
So, needless to say I’m using these ligatures for a while. There is another ligature that is supposed to be good too, the Francois Louis ligature, and perhaps you’ll see a review of that soon, but I’m not promising anything 
Loading ...
mike said on November 2, 2004
I, too, have seen lots of claims about the effect of ligatures on response. I don’t know if I believe it or not (though I’ve only ever used generic ligs, inverted Bonade or Rovners).
I have observed large differences between reeds — not only different brands and strengths, but even different reeds in the same box. And I find the variability from reed to reed to be much larger than the effect of a given ligature, at least from this admittedly small sampling of ligatures.
So I would be interested in hearing how this works out over time: Do most reeds work better (for you) with the Olegature? Are you getting more playable reeds per box, better response, etc.? And how durable is the ligature?
ericdano said on November 2, 2004
I can speak to the durability of the ligature. It seems very well made.
Reeds seem to respond a the same as before, I just notice that the instruments seem to “speak” better…..
TheJazzMan said on November 7, 2004
i use the francios louis ligature on bari. it gives my berg easier playing in alll registers, but its a litle muddy sounding for me… im looking to buy a winslow ligature for tenor (as it will fit my bari berg and tenor) to replace this one after a freind let me try his lig. clean sound and articulation all around on the winslow. the francios louis is great, although i want to move on to the winslow. the FL lig sound great on tenor. i recommend both of these ligatures. there is huge difference in ligatures.
The Reverend Tommy P said on December 5, 2004
I personally haven’t used these, but I can say that I too recently changed ligatures for all three of my saxophones.
I now use Rovner ligatures and am very happy with the ease with which I find myself replacing reeds and adjusting these ligatures to my mouthpieces. I purchased them for $21.95 each at Kennelly Keys in Seattle – Northgate location.
They all fit nicely on to my mouthpieces and look quite professional.
The Reverend Tommy P