Klarinet Archive - Posting 000025.txt from 1994/08

From: ELAINE THOMPSON <eethomp@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: cracks
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 1994 14:45:10 -0400

On Mon, 8 Aug 1994, Roel de Vrijer wrote:
> [snip]
> The interest in this question is more than purely academic: my B flat
> clarinet has a crack. As a matter of fact, it was already there when I
> bought the instruments (a second hand pair of Buffet Crampon RC's)
> three years ago, and it is still there (cracks never go away).
>
> It is in the upper part of the top joint, more or less parallel to
> and slightly longer than the register key. Often it is hard to find,
> just a hair. But sometimes it opens up a little bit, and that looks
> quite scary (altough you get accustomed). On the whole the situation
> has been stable over the last three years.

Generally, a crack will not make an instrument unplayable unless it
spreads to a tonehole or becomes so wide that air leaks out along it.
Then the tuning of the instrument will change.

I would suggest that you seek out a respectable repairman and have the
crack pinned. That way, you can be certain that the crack will not
spread into a tonehole or into the upper tenon.

Elaine Thompson "Two roads diverged in a wood and I,
eethomp@-----.edu I took the one less travelled by,
Johns Hopkins Univ. And it has made all the difference."
--Robert Frost