Klarinet Archive - Posting 000157.txt from 1995/10

From: Everett J Austin <BrendaA624@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Undertones
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 1995 03:07:50 -0400

In reply to Bruce Keplinger's comments on A and B-flat upper clarion notes:
I have been told by numerous and certainly noticed myself that Buffet R-13 A
clarinets tend to have this undertone tendency, most pronounced on the A one
line above the staff. A mechanical improvement to alleviate this can be made
with customised speaker tubes, of which several designs are about. I asked
Charles Bay about this once and he said that just shortening the existing
tube would help (this is what Jonathan Cohler referred to a while back)
As a point of comparison, I have a Buffet RC Prestige A clarinet and it does
not behave this way exactly: the A is ok but the 1-1 B- flat does not like to
speak easily. Apparently this acoustical difference is due to the different
placement of the speaker tube on the RC compared to the R-13, more than any
difference in bore. (Another thing about the RC models is that the various
modified barrels for R-13s like Moennig, Fobes, etc make the upper clarion
flat and do not really seem to work on the RCs. I wonder if this relates to
the speaker tube placement or to bore, or both?).
Do people playing other brands experience these quirks? Leblanc's
promotional literature, for example, would imply that their clarinets
virtually play themselves...

   
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