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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000039.txt from 2004/01

From: barbara trautwein <mzeztee@-----.edu>
Subj: [DR-L] Re: new wooden instruments/cold lockers
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2004 21:27:56 -0500

Dear List:

May I pick your brains, please. . . especially those of you connected
with colleges and universities. ???

We have a fairly new . . .new to us Howarth EH spending its first winter
in North Carolina after living in Minnesota. Our students have been
gone on Winter break since about December 15. . .the instrument was last
played about 10 days before that. It sat in a student's locker all that
time. About a ten days ago, I got it out to practice a part I have
coming up. (My horn will be back to me in time but I just wanted to
learn the needed music.) The first octave key wouldn't open; the first
trill key, if bumped, wouldn't close and the whole bottom half seemed a
mess. I let it sit in the case for a few days, with orange peels,
talked to a few folks who know more than I do and had planned to send it
off for major adjustments when lo and behold, it sort of "righted"
itself. The upper joint stuff went back to normal and following Brother
Pat McFarland's guide book, I adjusted the mechanism so that the lower
joint plays as it normally did!

The question I am being asked by our orchestra director is what climate
control measures should be taken at school to prevent this from
happening? Our building's air conditioning and heating system is very
erratic and technicians are constantly around trying to fix it. .
.nothing seems to improve. . .alas. . . . but during the winter the
hallway where the lockers are IS cold and probably dry.

Are there commercial climate/humidity controlled mobile storage
facilities that could be installed in our building to accommodate a
dozen or so instruments? I've been working in this building for twenty
years and I have never seen this before. . .nothing has happened to the
few clarinets that we have acquired over the years but this is the first
new double reed that we have gotten.

Any advice is certainly welcome and appreciated!

Many thanks!

Sincerely,

Barbara Trautwein
Wake Forest University