Morgan EL alto and lig?

[PhilF]

I received my Morgan EL for alto last week and the Vandoren opt lig I love for the other alto pieces is tooooo big! Called WW&BW and was advised to think of a Vandoren Bb clarinet lig. Others might be BG metal tradition, or Bonade. I'm not sure what to consider. Anyone have their favorite properly fitting lig for this piece.
Thanks

[sjabariiii]

The clarinet optimum works amazingly well on the excalibur alto (and looks swell too, it's silver). It has a very clear and powerful sound. The fit is not quite perfect though, if you try to yank the mouthpiece off the neck with it on it might come loose and break your reed, and if you have a very thin-bodied brand of reed (legere studio for ex.) it doesn't go tight enough.

-ANDYJ

[solflare100]

Try the Rovner MkIII Clarinet Liguature. That's the one I use for Tenor. (Alto MkIII on Tenor Excalibur 7E)

However, a lot of people also recommend the Francois Louis liguature, which is supposed to be VERY good. I haven't had the chance to try them out yet, but also check on the "Liguatures Forum". A lot of players there recommend the FL Lig. It's also around the same, or cheaper, than the Optimum.

Hope this helps.

[Roger Aldridge]

I use a silver Francois Louis ligature with my 6EL alto mpc. This is a seriously fantastic set up. I wish that I could have had it YEARS ago! :lol:

Anyway, here's the deal about using a FL lig on an Excalibur mouthpiece.... Get the regular size FL alto lig (size XL); BUT, you'll need a longer reed plate screw in order for the lig to fit correctly. I've ordered various FL ligs from Dave Hoskins (junkdude.com) and Roberto's in NYC. Both of them have FL spare parts in stock. So, it's not a big deal to have them swap the original reed plate screw for a longer one.

There are all kinds of subtle design features in a Morgan mouthpiece (such as the special hard rubber formula that Ralph uses, thin beak walls, etc) that produce resonant tonal qualities. Therefore, it's important to use a lig that allows the mouthpiece to vibrate as freely as possible in order to get the best possible sound from it. It's my feeling that this is even more important for the Excalibur with its thin chamber wall.

In using a FL lig with my Morgan mouthpieces there's a sparkle in my sound that I've never had with other ligs.

[shmuelyosef]

The clarinet Vandoren Master's Inverted is a good fit on the alto Excalibur

[MM]

The Hite alto lig fits the alto Excalibur quite well is is a fairly low-cost high-perfomance lig. It is metal and touches the reed at 4 points.

The Hite alto piece is similarly streamlined.

I also dislike the Rovner type ligs on the smaller horns (alto, soprano, clarinet) and find they muffle the sound.

[gyrofrog.com]

I ended up selling my Excalibur, but I usually used a plastic Gigliotti [sp?] ligature for clarinet. I also had a Rovner EDIII, also for clarinet.