Klarinet Archive - Posting 000179.txt from 1995/08

From: CLARK FOBES <reedman@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Bass clarinets
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 17:26:04 -0400

You wrote:
>
>Thank you for the overwhelmingly diverse and fascinating responses to
my
>question about bass clarinets. I had made the decision to have my
favorite
>repairperson Judi Marshall undercut my tone holes when I bought my new
bass
>(sigh, someday...) If there are any others who have a response,
please jump
>right in and add your comments!!!
>
>By the way, Judi is quite good. She's a master technician, and is one
of
>NAPBIRT's traveling clinicians.
>Beth Morgenroth
>

It sounds as if someone has sold you on the idea that all bass
clarinets need to be undercut. Undercutting tone holes is a very tricky
busines and must be done by someone who is experienced and has the
playing ability to properly judge if a tone hole needs undercutting or
not. Buffet Bass clarinets in most cases have an enormous amount of
undercutting, which in my opinion is part of the "narrow twelfth"
problem. Selmer basses have some tone holes that are undercut or
"fraised" and some that are not.

I prefer not to perform any type of "surgery" on new instruments.
New basses in particular may go through rather radical changes in the
first 6 months. It may also require some time on your part to get used
to the overall tuning of a particular instrument.

Please refer to my article in the CLARINET Vol 13, no.2 , "Tuning
the clarinet: procedure and technique." and then read the article "Fine
tuning the Selmer Model 33 Bass clarinet (Low C), Part I" Vol 14, no.1.
This part deals primarily with pitch adjustment and can be applied to
any bass clarinet.

Clark W Fobes

   
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