Did anyone ever have a bad Rico Reserve reed?

[Chunsoo]

I'm not really sure myself but it's probably a bad reed since its cane. I recently got my first box of Rico Reserve Tenor reeds. When I played my first reed, it felt like a Vandoren Traditional but darker yet something was off. I noticed that I had a darker tone, but my starts weren't immediate and my response was slow. Then the next time I played, I felt my playing was worse, usually the tip of the reed kept getting warped because I wasn't too careful when wetting the reed. My response and starts were bad and my sound kept dying because I had to blow more for some reason. My tone was dark but I didn't like my tone at all since notes like the middle C sounded bad when I blew a bit more.
Its probably me though since I didn't practice my sax for almost 2 weeks because I was waiting for these reeds to come since I had none left. Plus my equipment is bad too since the sax I'm using is old plus its beaten up due to marching band with so much dents everywhere and it probably wasn't handled well when my maid was cleaning the house and a C* mouthpiece that is in a poor condition as the sax with the tip being chipped with a old, rusty ligature that can't hold the reed correctly. So it's also frustrating to practice :P. I know that my embouchure got really weak with out of tune notes everywhere, now I'm only focusing on longtones.
Sorry for my long rant :P, just wanted to know if any had a bad Reserve.
It was also my 2nd 3.5 reed since I switched to a harder reed recently.

[SearjeantSax]

reserves are like that before you blow them in, make sure you wet the whole reed ( butt as well ) and then play for a bit through the whole range of the horn with lots of diaphragm support and then put it away for a few minutes while you do the others in the box, then they're usually fine,

and yes I have had the occassional bad reed with reserves, sometimes a bad box. but its rare, thats why I use them. just persevere, they usually end up goo, just takes different amounts of time with different reeds and different boxes/batches

[Chunsoo]

Well I always use one reed at a time so I don't know if the box was bad, I was guessing that most of it was me because I haven't practiced for almost 2 weeks and my embouchure got weaker since I was playing the tuner and I was sharper than usual since I'm always a little flat.

[SearjeantSax]

Well I always use one reed at a time so I don't know if the box was bad, I was guessing that most of it was me because I haven't practiced for almost 2 weeks and my embouchure got weaker since I was playing the tuner and I was sharper than usual since I'm always a little flat.

that sharpness is because the reed needs to be blown in properly, as it is its too hard so you're biting too much which makes you sharper, just wet the reed all over and well, then blow for a bit and put it aside, and you should use a whole box and rotate the reeds, they will all last longer this way, so blow them all in, us one day, then another the next day etc.

[Mazben]

I have used the reserve reeds for tenor and also find them resistant and not quite what I expecyed as \i had been playing rico royal but use the alexander method to get them ready to play and then gently play them in rotation and you will be really surprised how they open out.

[musicforemotion]

I picked up a bunch of complimentary alto Rico Reserves at the TMEA Convention in 2008 and fell in love with them. They were consistent through the entire range of the saxophone and the altissimo register sang beautifully. The first full box that I purchased was just as great as the rest, but I've also been disappointed with the reeds lately. It's been a little over a year since those initial reeds and I'm on my third box of "duds". I'm hoping that I just got a few bad boxes, although I am a little suspicious that the production quality might have decreased after they made such a big bang at first. I'm curious to hear what others have to say about these.

[CooolJazzz]

I've bought several boxes each for both alto and soprano and haven't come across a bad reed yet. Best reeds I've ever used. It's always possible that they could end up running into a batch of lesser quality cane than I've received, but I've been happy with every reed so far.