Klarinet Archive - Posting 000050.txt from 1994/01

From: Cary Karp <nrm-karp@-----.SE>
Subj: Re: making a better clarinet out of plastic
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 03:31:02 -0500

Quoting: Dan Leeson

> They would need . . . a satin patina finish that made the material look
> elegant. Now, it looks like a shiny black umbrella handle.

I'm not too sure that I would regard this as an objective musical
criterion, but some of the Vito horns are treated in this manner, including
faked grain.

I have otherwise been direct party to two production schemes for plastic
instruments. The one involved fitting wooden instruments with epoxy
liners. The bore was reamed about 2mm wider than necessary. A metal
mandrel with the desired final profile was inserted into the bore and
the space around it filled with epoxy. The mandrel was withdrawn after the
epoxy hardened and, voila! The gentleman who devised the scheme (which
was obviously inspired by Heckel and, I believe, is still in use in the
factory of its origin) said that his intention was to be able thereby to
transform a piece of inexpensive fruit wood (softish and porous) into a
piece of grenadilla. Instead, he said, he ended up "turning the finest
boxwood into a piece of plastic". I'm not talking about clarinets here,
and for many other instruments the difference between plastic and wood is
significant.

The other scheme also involved using epoxy; this time for casting recorders.
The basic idea was to be able to make cheapo one-off instruments which,
nonetheless, were of good quality. A silicon rubber impression was made
of a suitable prototype, filled with epoxy and, again, voila! This never
made it into production because it was to imprecise. There were, however,
serious plans for using the molds to cast recorders in chocolate. Buy 'em
buy the box, keep them in the fridge until concert time, and eat them
afterwards.