Klarinet Archive - Posting 000206.txt from 1993/12

From: Cary Karp <nrm-karp@-----.SE>
Subj: Re: Bennett's secret and clarinet acoustics
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1993 13:48:44 -0500

I can think of a number of things that a repairperson could do quickly in
the back room that would cause a dramatic improvement in the performance
of a clarinet. We don't know what Bennett's "homogonization" actually
was, but the anecdotal explanation provided here doesn't even remotely jibe
with anything reported in the wood technology literature. One way or the
other, if a clarinet does respond to some type of vibration treatment in a
manner that is immediately, dramatically and LASTINGLY audible, this means
two things:

1. That the treatment somehow releases internal stress in the wood
(plausible, I suppose), and,

2. The internal stress in the body of a clarinet contribute to the sound
produced by the instrument in a manner which both contradicts just about
everything else that anyone has said on this list, and which is far
greater in extent than anything accepted by acousticians despite their
century long examination and debate of the subject.

I'll write at length about what I know about the underlying wood and
acoustical technology. In the meanwhile, please don't confuse the case of
the thick walled wooden instrument (the clarinet) with that of the thin
walled metal instrument (saxophone and flute), where walls of the
instrument have been demonstrated to contribute substantially to the
radiated sound. Metal is an *entirely* different substance and the
different acoutical properties of different alloys, as well as the
mechanisms for "relaxing" worked metal are well understood. The existence
of "cryogenics", or any other techniques which may or may not be useful
for effecting musically beneficially results with metal, in no way
whatsoever suggest the existence of similar techniques for wood.

I suppose if we're going to write this all off to magic they might, but
we haven't yet exhausted the domain of rational explanations for this
great mystery.