Janet Blair
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2025
My teenage daughter has been playing the clarinet in band for four years. She’s in marching band and concert band, moving to symphonic band next school year. She’s been using D’Addario reeds, but was willing to try a new brand when we had the opportunity to review the Musiqmaker reeds. They’re good, they are easier to play and there is only a small trade off in richness of sound. All in all she really likes them and wants me to reorder them. These reeds are longer than some others, but that didn’t make a difference in how they fit. She did note that they lay closer to the mouthpiece than her other brand, which may make a difference in the vibration.Pros:*Easier to push air through it to get a sound out, you don’t have to work as hard. This is especially helpful for playing really high notes.*The sound is clear and bright with great volume.*All the reeds in the pack were good, the quality is very consistent. Sometimes she would get a dud in a pack of the other brand.Cons:The sound is not quite as rich as the other brand.Overall, these are a great everyday reed for most needs that is easy to play, less expensive, and has consistent good sound quality.
Remington
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2025
My daughter recently took up the clarinet. I'm very proud, I love seeing her use her musical talent for something. I'm still learning about clarinets and how they all work, but I learned early on that reeds make a big difference in sound quality. I'm always looking for upgrades, so when I saw these I had to try them.They arrived in a nice box and contain all of the promised reeds.These fit perfectly in her little rental clarinet! They take moisture well and so prep easily before use. They sound great, not a huge difference compared to the cheaper ones, but still noticeable. My daughter says they work great and sound better to her as well.Overall I'm pleased with these reeds. They have a great sound and the price is comparable to many other reed packs. For the price it's worth testing these and seeing if you notice an improvement.
Florida Geek
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2025
My high school junior clarinet player tells me that these reeds are excessively soft and smell and taste weird. She tried to use one and ended up throwing it and the rest away.
J. A. Hammer
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2025
They look really nice and come in individual cases, as you’d expect. They are ready to go and play fine.
Rich Loss
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2025
Basic reed replacements, nothing fancy but the sound great, hold up well and last well.
Fox
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2025
These might just need to be soaked for the better part of a year or something, because they are Incredibly stiff, and getting a note out of them is a bit tricky.
Customer review
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2024
These are okay beginner reeds. Nothing to write home about. I can't imagine these ever being anybody's first choice reed however. Since reeds can be expensive, we're keeping them as backups to my daughters Rico reeds. If you use Rico reeds, and you know the quality, these would be considered a step below. I think that they would suit uber beginners and marching band musicians. I am a professional musician. I play bass and b-flat clarinet. I opted for the two and a half so that my daughter, who is beginning the clarinet, and I could both use them. They are extremely clean reeds. I didn't see any imperfections, or nicks at the cut line. If you soften them up and prep them enough, there is no issue initiating sound. I found them to be kind of bright, which isn't the tone I usually go for. We had no issues with tuning. My tuner picked up their tone easily. I was surprised that my daughter and I got no tinniness from these reeds. Their response to tonguing is kind of where these reeds fail. On longer runs, I felt like I was fighting this reed. My staccato wasn't as sharp as I would like. All in all, I don't think these were meant to be professional reeds. Not to mention the fact that if you already play on a reed that you consider your Cinderella slipper, there's rarely ever a reason to change. But if you are a beginner to intermediate player and happen to find yourself with a box of these, particularly if you didn't have to pay for them, don't necessarily kick them out of bed.
Matthew Gertz
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2024
It had been nearly 12 years since I'd taken my clarinet out, but as I'd been getting back into playing music for my personal enjoyment, I thought I'd get it going again. I've gone through long periods without playing and I know from experience that the challenge isn't the fingerings but the embouchure -- and the key to re-developing that sort of muscle control is having a forgiving reed.The reeds (I got the 2-1/2 variety) come with good plastic protectors that keep the thin part of the reed from breaking. I chose a reed and set it to soak in tap water (our water is quite soft) for about ten minutes. Then, carefully fitting it under the ligature, I proceeding to play a bunch of Broadway tunes for the next hour. I started out with songs in the chalumeau range, wanting to test that out before trying to overblow into higher notes. My clarinet is an elderly (70-year-old) hard rubber "Hoosier" woodwind which has wonderful lower-register tones, and the reed was perfect for bringing out the best in those despite me being way out of practice. I moved into vibrato -- no problems, the reed reacted perfectly to my lip movement.Moving to the clarion, I struggled at first to succeed producing pleasant overblown notes, but that turned out to be a "me" problem -- once I remembered how to shape the back of my soft palette, I had no problem with notes up to high G. Above high G -- well, that's not a great range for a 2-1/2 reed anyway, and I would have to try a 3 (which I'm not ready for) to get the remaining clarion notes above that (and I was never any good at the even higher altissimo range at all).Overall, I'm very happy with the reeds. I ended my introductory session with no lip muscle fatigue at all, and will certainly be playing a lot again using these reeds. Based on this success, I might try to break out a saxophone as well and try the appropriate version of these reeds for that.