How much difference does a ligature make?
*is curious*
thanks
x

I was always very doubtful about this ... but I confess that when I started using a fabric lig, I thougth things improved. Liked it immediately (Rovner in my case)

I think that ligature choice and especially ligature placement does play a part in the quaility of your tone.

Different ligatures are made of different materials, metal, fabric, rubber, leather, hard plastic, string, metal mesh etc.
Things like how the ligature contacts the reed, whether this is over a wide area or at small points and the mass of the screw (screws) and their position will have some effect on how the reed is able to vibrate.

To what degree this is discernable as a difference in the sound heard has been subject to just about as much debate as that regarding reeds, mouthpieces etc.

I didn't think a lig would make much difference till I tried one. It was a vandoren metal as opposed to the metal one which came with my clarinet (old student model) I was amazed at the difference. More clarity of tone I think. So when I bought my new clarinet I tried a few different ligs with it - some were very weird contraptions!!!! It was very close between the Rovner and BG. I chose the Bg in the end. Not sure if it makes a huge difference on some instruments but once the instrument's right I do think they make a difference.