Klarinet Archive - Posting 000050.txt from 1994/10

From: Gerry Evoniuk <Gerald.Evoniuk@-----.BITNET>
Subj: Re: Other woods
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 13:14:23 -0400

>On Wed, 5 Oct 1994, Lorne G Buick - Music TA wrote:

>Last week I saw a rosewood clarinet at a local store. The make was "Pan
>American", or some such, dstributed by Conn. I haven't tried it yet.
>Anyone know anything about these?
>

When I was apprecticing in Syracuse back in the early 70's I had a major
disscusion with my mentor, Leroy Abbott --now in Pittsburg I think. Anyone
know him? Anyway, We had several of those laying around the junk bin. He
contended they were cellulose or some sililar synthetic and I thought they
were rosewood. He took a chunk off a broken joint and held it ofver a flame.
It burst into flame like no tomorrow and melted!! I don't know if Conn ever
made rosewood clarinets but that one definatley was plastic. Leroy also
pointed out the end grain and said the fiber ends looked to even.

I guess one had come in the shop with a broken tenon some years earlier.
When he found a nice chunk of roeswood to make a graft he cut the broken
part of the tenon off with a saw. He didn't think it sawed like wood and the
dust looked funny, kind of opaque white instead of brown. Thus th flame test.

We rarley worked on these instruments since most had pot metal keys. You can
tell by looking at the undersides of the keys. If the have a number
(probably a mold number) it's pot metal. Some without numbers turned out to
be potmetal too. Most of our junkers were junkers do to the fact they had a
broken key, usuallu a bridge or the right F/C key.
******************************************
Gerald Evoniuk
Instrument repair technician
School of Music, Box 870405
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-0405
(602)965-4502
Fax 602-965-2659
email Gerald.Evoniuk@-----.EDU