I recently replaced my 20+ year old clarinet ligature; you can see it give my clarinet a splash of colour in my latest YouTube upload. I didn’t need to replace it, because despite the leather gradually deteriorating, it’s not as if there was going to be a catastrophic failure.
It’s replacement is a Bambú Nova, which won out over my failed attempts to use a Silverstein original T-Frame. Truth be told, the only reason I gave the Silverstein ligature a thought at all was because of a mix up at my local music store, which instead of bringing in just a Silverstein OmniCap, they brought in a dual pack that contained the cap and ligature. The problem? The ligature was too small (it was size small, perhaps for an Eb clarinet or maybe a narrow metal sax mouthpiece).
I didn’t realise that at the time because I didn’t have my clarinet with me. I paid the dollars, took it home, it didn’t fit, nuts, waited for a replacement, the replacement medium T-frame arrived, I tried it out at the store.
It was terrible.
I’ve never experienced such a fidgety ligature. Tightening the screw seemed to make the cords irregularly tighten, and good luck keeping those metal bars in the correct place on the mouthpiece while doing so. I’m sure after many hours it would somewhat mold to shape, but I didn’t have the patience for that and could foresee me becoming annoyed with the purchase. Silverstein’s T-Frame was out (there was no way I was going to buy their way more expensive A-frame), and the Bambú Nova was in. The music store had one in blue.
I bought it, plus an OmniCap.
I’d previously bought a black Bambú Nova for my alto saxophone, which replaced a classic/basic two-screw metal ligature. It was functional and did the job. One screws is certainly more convenient than two, but if there’s one thing these fancy cord/weave type ligatures aren’t so great on, it’s staying in place when you’re putting the mouthpiece on and off. Using cork grease to help the mouthpiece slide on and off with less force will only take you so far.
That’s a level of inconvenience I can put up with though.
I’m not here to pour cold water over Silverstein’s ligatures, but I’m not one that can hear the difference between a “normal” ligature and a super expensive one. I’d been using a stock standard leather one on my clarinet for eons, and I’m taking a wild guess that it deadens the sound or something? I’m not sure exactly. And for my saxophone, the metal one I think I’ve always had, and the main reason I replaced it was curiosity, or just a change. I didn’t hear a difference between the basic metal and the Nova.
There are way too many other factors that are going to make you sound good, bad or average; there’s no way a Silverstein ESTRO Clarinet Ligature – Gen. 5 is going to offset the tone quality you can max out with on an average reed. These ligatures are definitely for the audiophiles, and despite me having a super picky ear for how I want my clarinet to ideal sound like (and feel/respond etc), I just can’t hear the difference between a basic leather mouthpiece and a piece of bling hold my reed on.
And that may be the crux of it really. The Silverstein ligatures are offering a level of bling, and at the risk of belittling the R&D they’ve put in, it has the vibe of choosing a gold plated iPhone case over a stock one.
Yet here I am commenting on the splash of colour my awesome blue ligature gives, contrasting with the stained black wood of a clarinet.
In praise of Silverstein though, I love their OmniCaps. Fancy ligatures don’t allow traditional mouthpiece covers to fit, and the OmniCaps work amazingly well. Silverstein also make a very good mouthpiece cushion they market as the OmniPatch. When you have one top tooth a little bit longer than the other, you need these cushions, and theirs are one of the more resilient.
I’ve never really had a serious issue with my bottom teeth destroying the inside of my bottom lip, so I have no need of an OmniGuard (it looks like a rugby mouth guard, but for you bottom teeth), and I don’t care enough about germs and mold to buy their OmniClean.
Back to Bambú, my music store threw in one of their neckstraps when I bought a clarinet.
There you go, a gear review, which I likely won’t make a habit of turning into YouTube videos, despite that unboxing video I did.
Coded Notes 