Whats A Good Alto Sax?

Whats better a plastic reed or wooden reed for alto sax?

• Answer:

  Neither one is necessarily better. Plastics are great because they generally have a longer life, are more consistent, a little less "fragile", and don't need nearly as much warming up before playing. "wooden" (really not wood but whatever) reeds on the other hand have a lot less life, are a lot less inconsistent, are pretty fragile, and need a bit of warming up before playing. Some people find the tone and responsiveness of traditional reeds better though. I've used plastic reeds for a while now. I get a great tone and great response from them. Then obviously almost everything other than that is advantageous about them. I still use cane reeds if I can't seem to get the plastic reeds playing, but that's very rare. I'd recommend buying a plastic reed. They're good to have. They're especially good for marching band, since your tone isn't important if you can't get a great tone and their durability is very useful. There's nothing wrong with using them for jazz or symphonic playing if you can find one that gives you good tone.