Klarinet Archive - Posting 000143.txt from 1994/09

From: "Jay Heiser, Business Development" <jayh@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Other woods / (SA Rosewood is rare, Indian is not)
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 1994 07:48:56 -0400

-->> Indian rosewood is pretty easy to come by. Its grown on plantations
-->> (I've been told that they alternate rows of tea & rosewood) and is
-->> a renewable resource. It isn't as pretty, but mechanically it is
comparable.
-->> SCO Government Systems Group
-->> 703-715-8727
-->>
-->Indian rosewood may be "comparable mechanically", but it is very porous
-->and much less dense than Brazilian, so I would suppose that the acoustic
-->properties of these two woods might be very different.

We had a long discussion on this group months ago and evidence was presented
that the acoustic properties of the clarinet material were largely
irrelevant (I don't get the "Journal of Acoustics" here so I cannot
confirm this).

Granted, a guitar is not a clarinet, but common wizdom is that indian
rosewood is a completely satisfactory replacement for brazilian (at least
mechanically & acoustically, although not visually). A vocal minority
feels that brazilian is superior, but its difficult to measure as this
is a) very subjective, and b) brazilian rosewood guitars often have
other advantages over indian rosewood (unrelated to the acoustic properties
of the wood).

If its too porous to support sustained drool, then it would of course
be unsuitable. ;-)
SCO Government Systems Group
703-715-8727