written by on 30/04/2013
I have played my Vito clarinet for 21 years now. It is the best clarinet that I've ever had. I have played it in competions, concert band, orchestra, and marching band. I have had educators and professionals tell me that it sounds like a professional as well. My recomendations with reeds with it is, start with Rico reeds and Rico royals with a number two strength of a reed. Later on switch to vandorens (made in France) and go up a stregnth up, like a two and a half or a three.
Now ....until about two years ago I tried a vandoren v-12 #3 stregnth and let me tell you the tone quality is awesome.
Tell you a funny story.....one evening doing a special rehearsal i was tuning with my Vito and the student sitting next to me had a Buffet R-13 . So we were tuning and the both of us sounded like one clarinet. So as you can see, I won't trade it in for another one.
You can see why I have had it for so long. The only maintenance I have done over the years is pad replacement ( the whole thing) and replaced my mouthpiece a good four times or so. I get the Vandoren brand as well. Had a couple of repairs with the corks as well. My next new mouthpiece would probably be either a glass or crystal one. It's will be a different venture for me.