does anyone else use rico reeds and do yours always absorb all the moisture? can anyone tell me any better quality brands

I used rico reeds for the first two years of sax playing, but then I changed to Rico Royals, and since then i have been constantly changing what reeds I use, on a quest for the perfect reed.
Some good reeds i have tried:
Vandoren (Trad., V16, JAVA)
Alexander (Superial, Classique, D.C.)
Rico Royal
Rico Select Jazz (for jazz playing)
Frederic L. Hemke (for classical and smooth jazz)
You can probably get most of these from your local music store, but places like wwbw.com and weinermusic.com have much better prices and larger selections.
Good Luck,
Bleeding Gums Murphy

Rico reeds are terrible. I recommend that you switch to one of the brands that bleeding gums murphy suggested.

everyone told me to go for rico and i have tried vandoren so ill probably stick with them. thanks anyway

Almost every beginner starts with Rico. I played Rico reeds for a good 3.5-4 years before I switched to LaVoz, and then about 3 years after that I switched to Vandoren.

Vandoren are the best reads you can get, trust me ice played for 8 years, and tried alot of em, vandorens the way to go

Yeah, you`re right about that, SimpsonSaxGal. I did play on Rico and LaVoz reeds for about the first 2 years of playing the alto. They are good reeds for beginners, but not so good for pros. After switching to Vandoren blue box 3`s, however, I noticed a great improvement in my tone, and breath control. And we all know that you need a good mouthpiece, too. I play on a Selmer S-90 for classical, and a Vandoren V-16 mouthpiece for jazz.

FWIW, every saxophone player at my college uses Vandoren reeds. If they came here on something else, they were converted by the amazing sax prof here.

I`m gonna jump on the bandwagon here but Vandoren is the best reed I have come across. I use standard Vandoren for classical and V16 Vandoren`s for Jazz.

Later

Word!

!@#$ Rico`s. They`re alright in the beginning but the reedy sound of it blows. For Classical I recommend Traditional Vandorens.For Jazz I use a Meyer mouthpiece hard rubber....it gives good overall blend. I use Vandoren Z`s as reeds. Dont get 2 or 2 1/2 those suck, if your going to get Z`s use 3 or 3 1/2.