Klarinet Archive - Posting 000142.txt from 1994/02

From: Cary Karp <nrm-karp@-----.SE>
Subj: Re: Older clarinets
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 22:21:02 -0500

On Thu, 10 Feb 1994, Dan Leeson wrote:

> Cary mentions that swabbing might well be a significant culprit
> with respect to tiring out older instruments.
>
> Cary what difference would there be with respect to bassoons which
> also swab, though not as frequently? Would maple be less likely
> to be affected by swabbing? Also, in the days of wooden flutes,
> they were swabbed frequently but I've heard little news about
> those instruments aging swiftly. The lower joints of oboes are
> swabbed with chamois, the upper with a feather. Is such action
> alleged to affect the oboe? If so, I've never heard of it.

Oboists are taught (or were at least in my day and place) to be very very
careful when feather-drying the upper joint of an oboe. They are also
taught to look into the bore after each cautious tickle and not to repeat
the process if no moisture is visible on the bore surface. The upper
joints of bassoons are lined with ebonite (harder than maple) and, as you
observe, they are not swabbed as often nor as rigorously as are
clarinets. I've seen clarinetists time and again pulling the grittiest
filthy rags a half dozen times through their instruments with no apparent
thought about anything other than the physical exercise.

Maybe there is a correlation between a clarinetist's swabbing technique
and the degree to which he or she is beset by "blow out"? Oboists are
also taught not to expect their instruments to last forever, although
I've never heard them speak of blow out or any suspected swabogenic
effects -- they've got their own set of subjective beliefs.

Although I can't imagine setting up an experiment series designed to
provide hard data about how an instrument would have been today if it had
been treated differently for the past 20 years, the mere fact that
swabbing is generally regarded as responsible for maintaining a polished
bore surface indicates that it removes wood. My suggestion that this
might explain blow out was a purely speculative conclusion based on that
observation. I've got other speculative suggestions to make, but will save
them until we get a consensus about there even being a phenomenon to explain.