I love the Vandoren Jazz reeds, I think they beat Rico Royals by far. It may just be that they dont work well with your 4C* Selmer piece. Wiat until you get your Meyer and try them with that piece... I'll bet you'll like them a lot more when you have a better mouthpiece!:) Good luck!

one of the problems may be is that mothpiece isnt designed for jazz reeds. the heart is placed differently on a jazz reed and so that they will play better with the shape of a jazz piece. im not a fan overall of ZZ's. i prefere v16's. however, on bari, i play nothing else for jazz. thats vandorens only jazz cut for bari and i really dig it.

Personally, I'm a big fan of ZZs (I use them on my vintage Dukoff tenor mpc for straight ahead, and use them on my Beechler alto mpc for fusion) . . . that being said, you need to experiment to find the optimal reed type for each mouthpiece you have (every player is different and has different tastes in sound, response, etc.). Your C* is a legit mouthpiece, and is designed for a reed with much more body to it, such as a blue box Vandoren (which is probably why Rico Royals work well with it). I first played ZZs on my Meyer alto mpc and loved them, but now I play blue box on that same Meyer . . . again, it's all personal preference. It's not a question of whether or not the reeds are good . . . it's a question of if they are the right reed for your mouthpiece. I never thought I'd be playing on Plasticovers again, but they happen to be the right reed for my Guardala Crescent . . .