Ligatures
Vandoren Optimum
The Vandoren Optimum ligature is unbelievably good. It’s a ligature I just discovered last year and it has done amazing things for my playing. One of the best characteristics is that it makes more reeds playable. Of course, by ?playable? I am being a little bit picky Z beginners will play on any reed Z but this ligature makes more reeds sound good. I never thought a ligature would make that much of a difference so my endorsement of this ligature comes as a surprise to many but I’m happy to say, almost 100% of my more advanced students and most of my professional musician colleagues own this ligature.
Rovner
The Rovner is a good option if you’re not looking to spend much money on a ligature yet. If this is the case, I would recommend sticking with the ligature you already have unless it gets bent or gets stretched out which will inevitably happen sooner or later. I recommend the Rovner because the hard rubber material they are made out of will stand up to any abuse and never stretch out. Also, a lot of my students who upgraded to Optimum ligatures have used Rovner ligatures for sale if anybody would be interested in that.