Alto Saxophone Reeds

Click to view product Range

Click to view product Range

Rico Standard Reeds
Designed for a wide variety of playing situations, Rico Reeds are cut of our most flexible grade of cane. The ease of play, affordable price and convenient packaging options are why more musicians worldwide find Rico the best value. 

Rico Royal 
Rico Royal reeds have a more traditional French filed cut for increased response, especially in the low register, adding clarity to the tone and making soft attacks easier. Available for the full range of saxophone and clarinet voices. French filed for flexibility and fast response Available for clarinets and saxophones Works well for classical and jazz applications Premium cane for consistent response.

Hemke
Frederick L. Hemke reeds provide the dark tone favored by many classical and traditional jazz saxophonists. The design is especially well-suited to traditional, round-chambered mouthpieces. French filed for freedom of response, especially in the low register, adding clarity to the tone and making soft attacks easier. Available in boxes of five.
•Professional-quality reed for classical and jazz applications 
•Shorter vamp for dark tone 
•Balanced, slightly thinner tip for quick response and articulation 
•Premium grade cane for consistent response and playability 
•French filed for flexibility and fast response

Plastic Cover
Designed to resist moisture and climate changes, Plasticover is ideal for use in outdoor ensembles such as marching band, and for doublers who need to make quick changes between instruments. Whether in moist tropics or in desert heat, Plasticover responds instantly. The durable coating also provides a clear, projecting tone, making Plasticover a favourite with jazz, studio and pop musicians.
•Coated with plastic to resist changes in moisture and climate 
•Coating provides durability and clear tone 
•Most flexible grade of cane for instant response 
•French-filed for fast response

La Voz
Crafted from premium cane for consistent response and playability, La Voz is the choice of professional saxophone and clarinet players. Unfiled for a deep, powerful tone, La Voz is the reed of choice for many of the world's top jazz musicians. 
•Unfiled reed for powerful tone
•Premium cane for consistent response
•Available for clarinets and saxophones 
•Available in strengths Soft to Hard

Select Jazz Filed 
The Rico Select Jazz cut features a strong, well-defined heart and longer vamp, yielding unprecedented projection and a clear, fat tone, with unsurpassed flexibility and lightning-fast response. Available with or without a French file.
•Huge sound with powerful projection 
•Premium cane for longevity 
•Outstanding control and projection 
•Available in third strengths from 2S to 4H 

Select Jazz Unfiled 
Select Jazz reeds feature the thickest spine and blank of Rico's jazz reeds with a traditional tip shape. The Select Jazz cut offers great projection, focus, and a dark sound. They are available in both filed and unfiled models. Offered in third strengths, as opposed to half strengths, players can choose the most precise strength for their individual equipment.Outstanding control and projection, Available in both Filed and Unfiled models for the full range of saxophones. Offered in boxes of 10. Available in third strengths (soft, medium, and hard), from 2 to 4

Traditional Reeds
The most widely played reeds in the world with a superiority proven over the years, these reeds suit all styles of music. Traditional reeds are known for their excellent response in all registers, allowing a pianissimo attack in even the highest notes. They are also extremely flexible, allowing the legato or staccato execution
of large intervals while maintaining a richness of tone that gives body andclarity to the sound, which is a hallmark of Vandoren reeds.

V12 Reeds
V12 reeds are manufactured from cane tubes with the same diameter as cane used for alto saxophone reeds. As a result, they have a thicker heel and are cut on a longer palette with a slightly thicker tip than the Traditional. The longer palette means that more of the reed is vibrating, resulting in a deeper, richer
sound. The thicker tip gives body to the attack and also increases the longevity of the reed.

Java
Developed in 1983 for jazz and popular music. A thicker tip and a more flexible palette* than the Traditional reed allow vibration over a larger surface area with maximum elasticity. This type of vertebral column gives the musician much greater playing flexibility, as the resultant elasticity zone is very large. JAVA reeds are more flexible than Traditionals and V16s and vibrate on a long palette, creating a bright sound with immediate response.  Palette: zone where the waves are propagated with the greatest range. Fromthe tip, the waves are absorbed further in the JAVA reed.

Java RED
The driving force behind the JAVA “Filed - Red Cut” design was to offer more sonic possibilities to musicians while keeping the qualities of the original Java. More flexible than its elder version, with a little more tonal body, the JAVA “Filed - Red Cut” offers a full, rich, centered sound and excellent projection
with an extremely precise attack. A relative of the JAVA reed family, the JAVA “Filed - Red Cut” is the first file cut Vandoren reed for jazz and popular music. It also benefits from a completely new design.

V16
Launched in 1993 to answer the demand of some American jazz musicians (a JAVA with even more wood).
The V16 has a thicker tip than the traditional Vandoren reeds and a longer palette. Sound: more brilliant, more percussive, particularly well adapted to all the new styles of music. V16 reeds have a medium-thick heart (more than JAVA but less than Traditionals), with a profile designed for producing a strong attack witha deep, rich sound.

ZZ Reeds
Developed in 2002, the ZZ jazz reed is immediately responsive without sacrificing the brightness tone quality required for this syle of music. The unique relationship between the heart and tip provides extraordinary color, great response and a durable life.
ZZ reeds combine the medium-thick heart, spine, and rounded tip of the V16 with the flexible palette design of the JAVA, giving the player a rich, colorfulsound with quick response.