Baritone Saxophone French Cut

Fantastic sound and wider range of hardness levels

I'm coming from using Legere's American Cut reeds. Those are fantastic, but for my classical mouthpiece on the bari (a Selmer E, in my case), the hardest American Cut reed (3.50) isn't quite firm enough to get the most out of the mouthpiece. It was still my favorite setup for the past couple of years. Now, with the French cut, hardness levels extend to 3.75 and even 4.00. (The 3.75 is working perfectly for me!) The tone is lovely - plenty of responsiveness across the dynamic range, and a warm, dark core available as needed for softer tones. I'm loving these (relatively) new reeds and am excited to play a diversity of musical styles with them in the context of saxophone quartet music.

New to Bari

I haven’t play Bari in 30 years, so I’m starting over with a new mouthpiece (Jody DV 7) and got a full set of 4 French cut from 2.5 to 3.25. Bari cane reeds are so pricey, this was actually a more affordable way to try different strengths. I love the results. The 2.5 is easy to play and can honk out that funk tone, while the 3.25 is subdued like Gerry Mulligan. I’m still jumping between them to find my preferred tone.

Best bari reed I've tried

Oh my gosh, I've bought hundreds of dollars worth of different cane reeds searching high and low for one that fit my sound, and a single synthetic reed turned out to be the perfect match for me. I was skeptical since I tried the Signature cut once and didn't like it much, but the French cut is a whole world better. A beautiful rich dark sound with controlled low and high registers. Can't express my love enough.