What determines a bad reed new out of the box? Also how do you know an old reed has gone bad?

You can't tell by looking at it, unless it is obviously chipped or cracked. You can tell a reed has gone bad when your sound becomes muffled or you tend to squeak more often. If your reed is visibly broken, then you should change it for sure.

Thanks for the response. What about a new reed? I have found that some reeds are very hard to play out of the box and some are very responsive. So if a new reed is hard to blow is it bad?

If a new reed is bad, you may have to just break it in. but if it is still like that after a few minute of playing, its probably bad

I've read that reeds with stems that look speckled, or visibly have a brown pattern on them aren't as good as reeds with "clean" or the same color as the rest of the reed stems.

That's true, which reminds me, never use mitchel lurie reads, they all look like that. Use rico, theyre much cleaner and produce a better tone.

I've had a bad response to Rico reeds in terms of squeaking and muffled sounds that only happened when I played with Ricos. My lesson teacher told me that some better quality reeds are Van Doren and La Voz. I recently switched to a Van Doren 3 reed and it has made all the difference in my playing.

Van doran is good too, i get rico because my local store has them more often.

You'll know if it's not easy to play well.

If you're interested in trying to pick a good one from the box at the store, try this:

Hold it up to the light and look to see if the wood is balanced on both sides. You'll be able to tell if one side of the reed has more fibers in it or sporadic fibers, or if more light shows through on one side than the other. The tip should have a very even consistancy of fibers, and there should be a nice symmetric arch of light around the "heart".

That said, there may only be a few of these in a box of 10, and it still doesn't promise good results. But, it has worked for me over the years.

Look at it down from the base to make sure its not warped. Look at it the same way as if you were buying wood from home depot. By the way, I like mitchell lurie reeds. For me they sound better than ricos. To break in a reed faster let it soak in COLD water overnight. Trust me, it helps.