I'm trying to get back into BC after a long layoff. I thought my horn had issues, but it turns out it was mostly my mouthpiece choice. My horn is an old rubber Artley that was restored by Dave Spiegelthal. I was going back and forth between a Yamaha 4C that Dave had refaced, and a Roger Garrett piece, with multiple different reeds (Legere 2.75 & 3, Fibracell 2.5 & 3, and LaVoz Mediums) and two ligs, a Rovner Dark and a Rico H-lig. I just couldn't find any combination that worked throughout the range of the horn, and every combo squeaked & squawked when going over the break all the way up to G.
A couple weeks ago, I played my bandmate's Clark Fobes San Francisco piece on my horn and the light went on. She tried to play my Garrett piece on her very nice Selmer BC and hated it. I also played the Fobes on her horn, and it was heaven - so maybe my horn does have a few issues.
I decided that the San Francisco was a little pricey, so I bought the Nova model, which is also very well regarded. Well I finally busted it out today and it is a very nice piece. I'm still trying to dial in reed strength. I like the sound of the harder reeds, but have a little more difficulty controlling them. The Fibracell 2.5 was the easiest to play, but the tone was a bit thin and buzzy. My current favorite is the Legere Standard 2.75. I think I need to work on long tones and voicing on that, and gradually work my chops up to the 3. The LaVoz also sound a bit thin, but I have only tried a couple of them, so I need to dig deeper in the box, and maybe even clip the tip a bit. Surprisingly, the Rovner lig sounds and responds better than the Rico H across the board.