Saxophone Forum


by sax_maniac
(984 posts)
20 years ago

Bari Star reeds

I've been trying Bari's Star reeds and thought I'd mention that they're quite an improvement over the old design - especially for classical playing as they are a bit firmer and warmer than their traditional reeds, which I've been fairly happy with for a number of years. I bought my first Bari reed back in 1993, I'm pretty sure. Just threw it out last year. Prior to now, I've wished there was something firmer than "H" to mellow the tone a bit, and they've done it by doing a straight-cut rather than a traditional V-shaped heart. It's a little beefier. I'll be using them regularly on alto and tenor, though the low end (D and below) got rather washed out and unstable on my soprano when I tried to play quietly, so I might not be able to use it for subtle solo soprano work at the bottom of the horn. This hasn't been as much of an issue with my alto or tenor, though the bottom end hasn't been as responsive as I'd like - again, when playing very quietly. Probably has something to do with the type of cut - like the Vandoren V-16 reeds. I haven't ventured to sand and sculpt the reed to address bottom end response at this point. It might be nice to get the hang of these reeds and then customize them to taste. I'll still keep my old Bari's in case I want a little extra buzz or brightness, but I like being able to play most classical music without reed prep. Their tone is more mellow than the regular Bari, but brighter than a Fibracell, though not by much. It's closer to Fibracell tone than the old Bari tone. I haven't tried them on my baritone sax yet. I could post my results in a few weeks if anyone cares. Now I'm really tempted to try out some of the old Brilhart Enduros that I stumbled upon recently...

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  1. by meruhl
    (3 posts)

    20 years ago

    Re: Bari Star reeds

    Thanks for sharing that. I've been thinking about trying the Bari Stars for a while, for basically the same reasons you mentioned. I wondered if there was any difference besides the material.

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    1. by sax_maniac
      (984 posts)

      20 years ago

      Re: Bari Star reeds

      There is a v-shaped heart with traditional cane (and original BARI ) reeds. The Bari Star reeds have a straight, gradual vamp - like jazz reeds. They play more firmly than their basic BARI counterparts of the same hardness, which has improved their tone considerably. I use stars now - my old BARI's are my backups. There's a little bit of color difference, but that's just marketing. I don't know if the base material is any different.

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      1. by Spunky2sax75
        (75 posts)

        20 years ago

        Re: Bari Star reeds

        Thanks for all of that input. I recently bought a BARI reed for bari and I like it. I wasn't aloud to use it in school because our director doesn`t like the sound of synthetics, but I enjoy it.

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