Klarinet Archive - Posting 000010.txt from 1994/05

From: Cary Karp <nrm-karp@-----.SE>
Subj: Re: Wood and its availability
Date: Mon, 2 May 1994 11:54:14 -0400

On Mon, 2 May 1994, Jay Heiser, Product Manager, Govt Systems wrote:

> For me, I think I've finally got a handle on this 'is it ebony?'
> or not question. The way the show presented it, the same wood
> that they make clarinets out of is the same stuff that they make
> piano keys and string instrument fingerboards out of.

The conservationist that said this was wrong. Present-day clarinets are
made out of what is called grenadilla in American English and African
blackwood in England. This is Dalbergia melanoxolyn (I may be spelling the
species name incorrectly) as was unmistakable from the pictures of the
logs.

> Guitar makers have always called this stuff 'ebony' (some
> make a distinction between 'ebony' and 'gaboon ebony').

There are several ebonies in trade, but none of them are Dalbergias. Ebony
and grenadilla are entirely different in appearance and working
properties. You can be quite sure that no guitar maker would ever confuse
them. Fingerboards and piano sharps are made of the former, clarinets of
the latter.

> The jazz clarinet player interviewed (Pete Fountain???)

It was Acker Bilk.