Are Plastic Reeds Good?
If you’re a reed musician, you’ve probably heard of plastic reeds and considered them as a possible alternative to cane reeds. I’ve certainly dealt with my own fair share of frustration with cane reeds, and that led me to try a wide variety of plastic reeds hoping to get greater consistency than I did with cane. If you’re trying to find out whether they’re worth buying, I prefer to think that I’ll be able to give you the most thorough answer possible.
Plastic reeds are excellent in that they can produce a sound which rivals that of good cane reeds while being more consistent and playing right out of the box. However, even the best plastic reeds will be surpassed by the best cane reeds in both quality of sound and responsiveness.
Of course, you have to make sure that you buy a high-quality plastic reed in order to truly reap the benefits associated with them. My absolute favorite plastic reed is the Legere Signature Series. It has a sound which rivals that of good (but not perfect) cane reeds, with an excellent responsiveness and incredible consistency.
Even if you are sticking to cane reeds, I firmly believe that it is worthwhile to have a Legere Signature reed as a backup for when your reeds aren’t performing quite right. It still sounds pretty good overall (I find that only trained audiences notice a difference, and sometimes not even they do), and it takes away the fear of not having a working reed for a performance.
| Plastic Reeds | Cane Reeds |
| The best brands have an overall good sound and are responsive | The best cane reeds have a perfect sound and responsiveness |
| Play right out of the box | Need to be broken in to play well |
| Consistent; play the same every time | May play differently each day |
| Unaffected by temperature and humidity | Sounds different depending on temperature and humidity |
| All reeds of the same brand and type are at least similar | Reeds of the exact same brand and type may be completely different; even from reputable brands some reeds may be unplayable |
| Lasts about six months | Lasts a month at most; some last only a few days |
| Does not need to be wet to play | Needs to be wet to play |
| Immune to warping and waterlogging | Can be warped and waterlogged |
Performance of plastic reeds
I’m leading with this because how the reed performs is the chief concern when deciding what to buy.
Quite simply, plastic reeds sound good provided that you buy from the right brand. Some professional musicians play entirely on plastic reeds and sound excellent. If you listen to a comparison of a cane reed against a plastic reed, you might not be able to tell the difference.
You aren’t going to lose a lot of tone quality, if any, by opting for plastic reeds. While the sound of a plastic reed is certainly different than that of a cane reed, I don’t consider it to be objectively worse.
Plastic reeds are also usually quite responsive in all registers. I find that low notes tend to pop out fairly easily, and I can often hit high notes even in the altissimo register while using them.
There was a period in my life when I used exclusively plastic reeds, and as a result there have been times when I used them for auditions and performances (both classical and jazz). I can’t say that they’ve ever let me down, and I sincerely think that plastic reeds can be viable even at the professional level.
The one disadvantage
For as frustrating and inconsistent as cane reeds are, you’ll get the occasional one which is absolutely perfect. Perfect cane reeds have a sound and responsiveness unlike anything else, and it’s a wonderful experience to be able to play on them.
The one downside to plastic reeds is that they’ll never be able to compete with cane reeds that are perfect.
It might seem like a waste to stick to cane reeds in the hopes of perfection. However, we live in a world where there are high standards for musicianship. Even if it is difficult to get a perfect cane reed straight out of the box, there are the options of either modifying them or otherwise trying a large enough number of them so as to eventually get a perfect one.
The point is that there will always be musicians who play exclusively on cane reeds and just seem to sound perfect every time. While there are still plenty of musicians who sound excellent on plastic reeds, I don’t think that plastic reeds will ever be able to mimic the sound of a perfect cane reed.
Although I have by no means stopped using plastic reeds, I use cane reeds again because I at least want a shot at sounding the best that I possibly can. And for many musicians, it seems that sounding one’s absolute best means using cane reeds.
Consistency
Other than their inability to sound as good as perfect cane reeds, I have nothing else negative to say about plastic reeds. There are many areas that they excel over cane reeds, and their consistency is one of the best examples of this.
Cane reeds tend to be fickle – they may not work if it is unusually hot or cold, or if it is too humid or too dry. They have to be wet to work, but if you wet them too much they may become waterlogged and warped. If they warp, they will usually sound terrible. You’ll also usually have to spend some time breaking in your cane reeds, as they usually won’t perform well right out of the box.
Plastic reeds have none of these problems. They will play basically the same regardless of temperature, humidity, or moisture. Plastic reeds will play well the very first time that you put them on your mouthpiece, and they usually won’t lose their tone quality for a matter of months.
Speaking of which…
How long do plastic reeds last?
Plastic reeds last for about six months, after which their tone quality begins to decline. They can be made to last longer by avoiding excessive use of extended techniques such as slap-tonguing and altissimo. Any damage to the tip will render them useless immediately.
Whereas cane reeds have a tendency to unexpectedly suddenly stop sounding good after using them for about a month (or sometimes much shorter than that), plastic reeds do not have the same issue.
I find that when I am using a plastic reed nearly every day, it lasts me for about six months. However, I’ve also done a fair amount of practice in the altissimo register, and doing so is well-known to shorten the lifespan of reeds.
If you take really good care of your plastic reed and avoid using techniques which put a lot of stress on it, you will most likely be able to get it to last up to a year. If you don’t typically practice every day, then it will last even longer still.
Unlike cane reeds, I find that plastic reeds do not suddenly stop sounding good one day. Rather, it seems to be a more gradual process where the tone quality simply declines a little bit each day after playing on them for an extended length of time. I find it easier to anticipate when a plastic reed will stop working than it is to anticipate when a cane reed will suddenly die.
Getting plastic reeds to last longer
If you want to get the longest possible lifespan out of your plastic reeds, I recommend keeping them in a reed case where they will be protected from damage. Also, I recommend avoiding the use of extended techniques that stress reeds trivially (that is, either commit to learning them and practice them in a productive way, or avoid using them). This might seem like less fun, but if you want your reeds to last then it is your best option.
Ideally, have multiple plastic reeds which you rotate through just as you would for cane reeds. This will ensure that the reeds don’t become fatigued. After playing on a plastic reed for about an hour, I find that the tone quality will temporarily decline, though it seems to recover after it’s been allowed to rest.
The most important part is to avoid damaging the tip. Plastic reeds may be more durable than cane reeds, but a single chip or bend at the tip will still render them immediately useless. Have a mouthpiece cover when carrying your saxophone around and you should be fine.
Which plastic reeds to get
The only plastic reeds which I’ve had a lot of success with are the Legere Signatures. When I wrote about all the benefits of plastic reeds above, I was mostly talking about these. I’ve tried some others, such as the Legere Classics and Bari reeds, but I personally haven’t gotten the same sound quality out of those that I get from the Legere Signatures.
If you’d like to buy one, you can find them here:
One thing to note about Legere signatures is that I find they tend to run soft for their listed reed strength. I recommend buying a plastic reed that has 0.5 greater reed strength than what you usually buy for cane reeds.
Are plastic reeds good for marching band?
Plastic reeds are ideal in marching bands because they are unaffected by the turbulent weather that marching bands often encounter. They also tend to easily allow for loud playing, enabling the musician to project their sound over the long distance of a football field.
I include this point only because I know that many young musicians play primarily in marching bands, and as such are mostly concerned with how they sound in that context.
I have played in marching bands for eight consecutive years on saxophone. After discovering plastic reeds, I never used a cane reed for marching band again. Sure, the best cane reeds may sound better than the best plastic reeds, but in outdoor settings cane reeds can be especially fickle. Any kind of unusual weather can easily render them subpar, at which point the plastic reeds surpass them.
Also, I find that plastic reeds tend to take relatively little effort to play on compared to cane reeds. In the context of a marching band, it is important to be able to project your sound without becoming fatigued. Plastic reeds are ideal to accomplish this.
For these reasons, I strongly recommend using exclusively plastic reeds in marching bands if you are able. At the very least, I can attest that doing so has never let me down over the course of eight years in competitive high school and college marching band.
Conclusion
Plastic reeds are absolutely fantastic. If you want to truly sound like a professional, however, you should probably consider using cane reeds as well.
Ultimately, it seems to me that both plastic and cane reeds have their place for the modern reed musician. I’d recommend buying them both, as both have their strengths and weaknesses.
That being said, I hope that this guide has in some way helped you gain a better understanding of plastic reeds and perhaps convinced you of their benefits. I think that they’re well worth it, I think that you will come to agree with me if you give them a shot.
