Klarinet Archive - Posting 000126.txt from 1994/05

From: SCOTT MCCHESNEY <MCCHESS4641@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Keys and The Stuff Clarinets are Made Of
Date: Thu, 5 May 1994 15:53:21 -0400

> We've gone around for months on this, but several people on the
> board insist that the construction material does not make a
> significant difference in sound. I'm not convinced, but I have no
> way of knowing, except for my experience with things that are
> not clarinets.

I've generally stayed out of this discussion, mostly because I have nowhere
near the experience that others here do. But, since it has come up, and I feel
that I have a legitimate argument, I shall present it.

I cannot say for sure that construction of the body makes a difference, but if
it did not, then why are there such a profusion of different MOUTHPIECE
materials? There are plastic, hard rubber, even glass and metal. I know lots
of jazz sax players who swear by a metal mouthpiece, and I can tell you that to
my ears, a sax played with a metal "jazz" mouthpiece (which is what a lot of
them are) sounds different than a hard-rubber mouthpiece. I've never played on
a glass Clarinet mouthpiece, but I heard one once, and the sound is unreal. If
the construction materials don't make a difference in the body, why would they
make a difference in the mouthpiece? They're all connected.

If you're going to disregard my comments based on the fact that they attribute
to a Sax instead of a Clarinet, fine. There's not a thing I can do about that,
but this example is the best that I can come up with right now. I could give
brass examples, even with mouthpieces, but the similarities between the two
families are alomst nonexistent, so those examples would bear little, if no,
weight.

> I submit that none of the metal clarinets you played were of the
> same quality as the wooden ones you've played. It'd be like
> judging resin instruments on the basis of one of those flourescent
> red Vito horns. Several people admit to experience with metal
> Haynes clarinets that they found quite toneful. (were they
> silver? weren't they double-walled or something? )

Very likely. I have yet to see, or play on, what is considered a "good" metal
Clarinet. Most of the ones I've ever seen were picked up at garage sales and
refurbished. Maybe I should have compared the metal Clarinet I had to a
beginner Clarinet. Might have been a better comparison.

-- Scott McChesney