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Forum - Saxy Talk - Ligature

Author Message
nicthejew22
User
Posted: 2008-08-08 18:44 CET
When putting the ligature on, does it matter wheater the screws are facing up or down?
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Savage
User
Posted: 2008-08-14 23:10 CET
It actually depends on the style of the ligature. When I was younger, I used to put it on with the screws facing up (the kind of beginner ligature you'd get with a student yamaha or something like that), and later realized it was more generally accepted to face them down, but since then I've seen tons of ligatures that are actually designed to have the screw(s) facing upward (usually the upward facing screws are rubber ligatures) and have seen one or two (I can't recall who) old professionals that used the metal ligatures with the screws up (but maybe they were doing it "wrong" on purpose). As far as I know, for a classic ligature, they go down, but I don't know the definite reason why. My best guess would probably be because the reed takes all the pressure and wear of the clamping side, and the mouthpiece gets the nice smooth side to avoid wear (or just to keep the screws as out of sight as possible).

Long story short, it doesn't matter IMO.
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Hi-iH
User
Posted: 2008-11-02 16:30 CET
Whichever side of the ligature that has the bigger flat part goes on the reed... mainly for a tighter fit. The rubber/leather mouthpieces try to eliminate this problem by just being really tight.. ha
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