OK, folks, I own $20,000 worth of fantastic ligatures and have been published internationally* on their merits, and those of ligatures that have not earned a place in my collection. Any intermediate student can note these differences, let alone my colleagues. We don’t all choose the same ligature, but we all tend to choose from the same handful. That handful is represented in all my cases, as it is in the picture above of my beautiful Backun Lumiere A clarinet with the amazing Chedeville Umbra mouthpiece in my orchestral case.

Rovner has knocked it out of the park with the Star Series as the best value ligature in the world, and it is now one of my favourite ligatures. And…get this…it is between 7% to 17% of the price of these other great ligatures.

In my opinion, you MUST reverse the tightening pin so it can be used right handed when placing the ligature pins on the reed as you can see above. There are instructions for this in the literature provided by Rovner. I do this with all their fabric-only ligatures…I find much better response and resonance when the fabric is not placed on the reed. Why is this the best of all Rovner ligatures except for the excellent Platinum model? Lighter fabric and the pins are not covered by fabric when they make contact with the reed.

This ligature is neck and neck with all but two of the ligatures above and beats a few of them handily in my testing!

No, I am not changing from my beloved JodyJazz Power Rings, but I AM going to get rid of all the inexpensive ligatures I keep in the studio for my students and get them to use these Rovner Star Series ligatures until they are advanced enough to try other premium ligatures. I will be stocking a pile of them in the studio. Even students with just a year of playing can tell the difference between a stock “gimme” ligature and a Bonade style “vertical rails on the reed” ligature, and a virtually indestructible high quality inexpensive ligature like this is just what the single-reed world has needed!

I discovered this ligature because they are supplied with Jody Espina’s Rousseau mouthpieces, and I called George Reeder, the President and Proprietor of Rovner Products the same day I tried them. He sent me a full set of them to test, and I’m blown away by his generosity and these wonderful ligatures.

Thanks, George…and congratulations! My favourite family-owned dealer in Canada is already bringing a pile of these into stock.

*PS, you can read my article on “Latest Ligatures” in the Educational Resources section of this website…but it now needs a rewrite! This ligature will be in the “Highly Recommended” section of the listing at the end of the piece.