Vandoren Optimum Ligature Alto Sax G

I recently bought a Vandoren Optimum ligature for my tenor, to go with the V12 mouthpiece I had also bought, and was very impressed by it. It was a significant upgrade from the Rico ligature I had been using. I therefore decided to order one for my alto as well. This turned out to be a completely different story.

I have a Yanagisawa AWO2 and am using a Meyer 5M and the supplied Yanagisawa ligature with Select Jazz 2H reeds. The Vandoren sounds very good with all three plates. It has a sweet, singing, lively sound and I have no complaints about it at all. It's just that the Yanagisawa is better. The Yanagisawa gives a stronger, fuller core tone and works better for jazz, which is what I play. in comparison, the Vandoren lacks depth but is smoother and sweeter, especially at the low end.

It may be that the Optimum ligature in combination with a V12 mouthpiece would work better that the Yanagisawa - they do seem to be a very good match on my tenor - but I tried the V12 on my alto and didn't like it as much as the Meyer, so I didn't go down that route..

I bought this ligature for my Vandoren V5 A55 Mouthpiece, it is really good and I realize the difference between this ligature and the cheap one i already have. This ligature has 3 different plates to press the reed, i dont really find major differences between the 3 of them; but there is a big difference between the setting of the reed and the precision of the compression between this and the other kind of ligatures. While some people have told me they find the ligature too expensive for the performance it brings, I feel that the difference is big, but perhaps it only makes sense if you are looking for something pro.