I was very lucky to click on a link from ZAC Ligatures promoting their booth at the latest ICA Clarinetfest in Dublin. That started a relationship with saxophonist, designer and owner of the company, Alberto Pellizzari. I had been experimenting with ebony resonator plates on some Japanese ligatures and liked the tone colour, but the heavy leather material holding the resonator in place dampened the projection too much. I ordered a ZAC ligature with a sterling silver gold plated mounting and an Ebony resonator….Alberto also sent me a sterling silver gold plated resonator, gratis! It turned out that the sterling silver gold plated resonator was my choice and this is the ligature you see in the picture above. It was so wonderful that I ordered seven more to fit all my saxophones and clarinets!
I will return to this particular model, but want to discuss all the variations available first. There are two different metal resonators available, brass and sterling silver. They are available with a satin finish or plated with Rhodium or Gold. The “mountings” or “machines” as Alberto calls them (the part with the screw that contacts the back of the mouthpiece and the plate that holds the cords) are also available in these metals and finishes. They all have different sound qualities that can be preferable for various kinds of music or any musician’s taste. All the machine and resonator plates come in different sizes for different saxophones and clarinets. Many other manufacturers use the same size resonator plates for every size of reed, which is totally inappropriate.
The cords that hold the resonators can also be used without resonators. These cords are the highest tech available, incredibly strong and supple. Dyneema® fiber is 15x stronger than steel at the same weight, with a tensile strength up to 43 cN/dtex. As well as its extraordinary strength, Dyneema® excels in cut and abrasion resistance and has a high resistance to chemicals and UV. It was first developed for sailing lines for America Cup competitors. The combination of this cord, an incredibly grippy rubber coating and the high tech washer that contacts the back of the mouthpiece gives us an incredibly secure ligature that lets the reed and mouthpiece vibrate like NO OTHER LIGATURE. The reed is seated nicely with very little pressure whatsoever. No problem tuning your saxophone or moving your clarinet mouthpiece between A, Bb and C clarinets quickly in orchestra. No other ligature is this secure with so much freedom and vibrancy in tone and articulation. In fact, all my previous favourite ligatures needed mouthpiece patches applied on the backs of mouthpieces for secure seating, and still had problems with slipping.
The gold plated solid sterling silver models I chose have great projection of the purist, warmest, most resonant shimmering centred tone I have ever produced, with the greatest ease of articulation I’ve ever experienced. My dear colleague Dr Alexander Richards of the Victoria Conservatory of Music along with Xavier Marican, the winner of last year’s University of Victoria Concerto Competition, spent three hours in my studio a few days ago trying these ligatures on every size of saxophone and were blown away. They’ll be contacting Alberto shortly!
Change your life! Improve your sound and your articulation! Contact Alberto through https://www.zacligature.com/en .
