i am intersted in tring other reeds for my clarinet, because i curently use a rico royal reed (like the plastic cover and mitchelle laurie, or vandoren)but ny local music shop only stocks rico royal and vandoren, but the only ons they sell separately are the ricol royal ones and i don't particulary want to buy a whole box of reeds for £10-15 when i might not like them i also don't want to order a selection box from just flutes as i am not interested in trying all of them in the box. so how should i go about trying them, for info i play a strengh 2 rico royal.

umm.. well, i have found some shops sell other reeds separately. though it might sound silly, you could try a site like ebay to buy a few single ones.

As you appear to be in you could try:

www.reeds-direct.co.uk
www.dawkes.co.uk
www.myatt.co.uk
www.britanniamusicshop.co.uk
www.johnpacker.co.uk
www.saxophoneheaven.com

...but by the time you've added the postage it might be just as cheap to try a full box from your local shop.

Go Vandoren trad. strength 3.5 (it's lasted me all marching season, aka like seven months from last year, and it still plays GREAT!)

If they are currently on a Rico Royal 2, a Vandoren 3,5 will CERTAINLY be too hard.

To be totally honest, you might as well buy a box. I would suggest a 2,5. It's going to be quite the step up from your royals, but I think you should be fine.

The issue with buying reeds separately is that you may or may not get something worth playing on. In a box of ten, you should have at least one, maybe two that are playable out of the box, and only 2 or so that aren't even salvageable. The rest can easily be worked to at least make a decent practice reed.

Vandorens are much higher quality, and worth the extra money. They are more consistent than Royals, and the cane holds up a little longer, or so my experience tells me. I would give them a try. If you don't particularly like them, at least you tried. But I have a feeling you'll enjoy them.

Some time ago I went up to “The Big Smoke” to buy as many kinds of reeds to try out. Here is what I was able to get. As I play No.2 Vandoran I tried to get the same grade on the others.
Zonda. No.2 ½. Though both the same number one was ½ as thick as the other at the butt end!
Rico Grand Concert. Could only get No.2. Pk of 2.
Rico Reserve. Pk of 5. No 2 ½
Vandoran Traditional. No2. x 2 reeds.
La Voz Medium x 2. One was cut lobsided at the butt end.
Rico Plasticote 2 ½.
Fibracell soft.

Then after breaking them in gradually, playing each every day for a few weeks I asked my wife who is a guitar player and a choral singer to sit down and listen to each reed and make notes. (I had already made some notes myself earlier so I was interested to hear a listeners opinion)
PS. I was only playing in Lower and Middle Registers.

Here are the results;

Zonda. Deep & Warm in the Lower reg.. A little harsh/sharp in the middle reg. The one with the thicker butt was the best of the two. The thinner one had no depth. (I would have liked to be able to modify the thick one because I liked it. It sounded to me like it had a big heart. But not balanced between the regs.)
Rico Grand Concert. Soft and mellow. Even tone over the 2 registers. The uneven cut one sounded the best!
Rico Reserve. Warm gentle but not full bodied. One of the three I used was the best. The other two were so-so.
Vandoran Traditional. Warm and deep sound with a “zing”. Tone good in both registers. Both reeds were good.
La Voz Medium. Deep. Good in both regs. Close to Vandoran, but a little lighter. I only had one reed to try.
Rico Plasticote. Easy to play. Clear sharp tone. No depth! Would be good to play loud on the street. (Our local Jazz Orchestra clarinetist uses them I’m told.)
Fibracell soft. Yeuch! Only if it was the last reed on Earth!

We’re not experts. This is just our opinions. It was fun. But it might be helpful to some. I’m interested to hear what others might have to say about reeds they tried and tested against each other.

P.S. I'm playing a Noblet with a Vandoran AT45 mouthpiece with a BG Revelation ligature.

thanksfor the info, i am going to try a plasticover one as my friend who plays the sax says they last alot longer and are good to practice on (she the uses a normal for lessons and jazz band) i will try a harder strength rico one and if i manage i shall give a vandoren a try, unfortuatley the cheapest way i can get the grande concert select ones is by getting 40 for £10 off ebay and i only want 1 or 2 to give them a go and find which i like best, i will stay clear of the fbre cell ones for a while as my mum complains about squeaking enough already so ill have to try them when i am better i am considering trying some michelle laurie reeds (but can only get them from the internet and am worried about the postman breaking them)
i play an old selmer console (right now anyway but wll be getting nice new one for chirstmas hopefully) and as far as i know it is all the orginal selmer stuff