So Long Rico Royal

[Grumps]

I'm done with Rico Royal. Well, as soon as my vintage box of RR baritone reeds run out, but on alto, tenor and soprano, I've moved on. For decades I've played RR's. I've always depended upon them for all my horns. Then the new box design. The plastic reed holders. And most importantly, entire boxes of unplayable reeds. I'm not going to ask why. I don't want to know what happened. I'm just moving on. So far I've had good results with Alexander Superials and things are looking up. I also picked up some Marca tenor reeds, but haven't gotten to them yet. It's sad, really. What once was, is no more. So long Rico Royal...

[robbieg]

Rico ended up getting bought out by D'Addario (guitar company). I really haven't tried any of their reeds post D'addario purchase, but I woulden't think that the quality would have changed that much... but who knows.

[Grumps]

I really haven't tried any of their reeds post D'addario purchase, but I woulden't think that the quality would have changed that much...

I had been reading complaints regarding Rico Royals for the last couple of years, but hadn't had problems myself. Thing is, I had hoarded them years earlier, and only recently ran out of the older styles. Now I see why some folks had soured on them.

[Mike Cesati]

Grumps try the other alexanders too. I used to like RRoyal but I like Classique

[Hurling Frootmig]

I think the Vandoren ZZ's have a bit of the Rico thing going on. I find them to be a little brighter than Royals but I can work with them. Personally, I have taken to buying plain old Rico's and finishing them myself. I mostly play cane on Tenor and Bari. On Soprano and Alto I prefer playing fibracells (which also remind me of Rico's).

[badfella518]

Did you try other ricos like hemke? I use vandoren and they are great.

[robbieg]

I use Rico Jazz Selects fairly often, but the box design on those and the Grand Concert Selects didn't change. So its difficult to figure out if you have the old ones or the new ones. Though I'd prob venture to say that they did the normal business thing, in lower the quality of the lower end to save money but try and keep the quality of the top end the same so you don't lose too much customer base.

[Grumps]

I tried the Jazz Selects recently as well. Five reeds, all disappointing.

[Michael Ward]

I used Royals forever in the blue box and when they went downhill I tried everything and find Alexander DC's to be a great reed. French cut like Royals but very good quality on the whole. I don't find any of the American cuts Superial, V16, Java, ZZ etc to be like the old Royals. I have an unplayed box of bari 5's in the old Blue Box if anybody needs them.

[Grumps]

I'll definitely sample the other varieties of Alexander.

[CMelodyMan]

I play Rico Royale reeds on bari and have had no problems.

[Grumps]

Oh, my bari RR's are fine... but they're about ten years old.

[Pigpen]

Grumps,

You might want to try another box of the rico jazz selects. They're what I've been playing for awhile now. My experience is that at most 1 or 2 out of 5 are crappy. I went to RJSs after getting a box of 25 rico royals that were almost all crap.

On the RJSs, I like the unfiled. Haven't tried filed and don't feel the need to.

pigpen

[unsafe_sax]

RR's have gone in the toilet. I used to use them exclusively - 30 years ago. A box of ten would have 6 excellent reeds and 4 I could play. Now it's more like lucky to get 1 playable.

[thundersax]

I used to use mainly RR's myself and still have some old ones that are still usable but I cant stand the new ones.... anymore I'm using fibracell or vandorens.

[clem]

I've been looking for a good alternative to the Rico Plasticovers I've always used. The boxes I bought during the past year or so have been very inconsistent.
I tried a box of Lavoz but they were worse.

I'm trying both Superials and DC's and so far I'm impressed.

[makemyday]

That's really funny, I've had exactly the opposite experience: the old RR were unusable, but the new ones have been extremely good (9/10 and even 10/10) since eight months or so, on as, ts and ss as well. I recently got some old stock form a supplier and had to throw whole boxes away again.

This confirms the quality-change though. It apparantly works out different on different mpcs/embouchures. I found some of the JAVA V16's also suck... maybe they'll work for you guys ;-)

[gary]

How does this stuff happen? :?

I got on a RJS kick and then got a bunch of mediocre ones so I tried a Rico Royal (which I had never really liked) which worked really well, so I've been playing them now for a couple of months with relative success. Weird.

The only brand that has consistently been relatively reliable for me for several years has been LaVoz, but which gives a bit of a lighter quality and I prefer a meatier sound.

[VickyJ]

aren't LaVoz and Rico the same company now?

[Blackwolf42]

I am pretty sure Rico owns Lavoz.

[Blackwolf42]

Personally I like both RJS and RRs. I can't stand most of the Vandorens, except for Blue Boxes.

[Merlin]

Nova Reed Corp is (was?) the parent company of Rico, LaVoz, Maier, Symmetricut, Hemke, et al. Been that way since the eighties at least.

[madav]

How does this stuff happen? :?

I got on a RJS kick and then got a bunch of mediocre ones so I tried a Rico Royal (which I had never really liked) which worked really well, so I've been playing them now for a couple of months with relative success. Weird.

The only brand that has consistently been relatively reliable for me for several years has been LaVoz, but which gives a bit of a lighter quality and I prefer a meatier sound.


and I went to LaVoz from RRs for the 'thicker tip' and meatier sound....

[rim shot]

Any of you guys remember when they used to number reed boxes on the outside of the end flap?

A cat from NY told me about this once...

Apparently guys (like him) were going into the shops and buying only one or two reeds out of each box- while noting the box numbers.
If the reeds turned out being from a killer batch, they´d come back and buy all the stock of that charge!

The companies got hip to it and then started printing the charge numbers on the inside of the end flap.

May be just an urban legend... who knows?