Klarinet Archive - Posting 000461.txt from 1995/12

From: Karl Krelove <KClarinet@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: E/B won't sound
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 22:44:58 -0500

>I have an old Selmer I bought in NY last year with a thin crack running
>from the top of the LH joint to near the A key [*please* abide my
> non-professional quality terminology!]. Anyway, the instrument plays well
> *except* for low E in chaleumeau/B in clarion which *cannot be sounded*.
> My question to anyone who may find the subject interesting is: do you
> think it's the crack, or is this a bad pad job? It looks to have been
> hastily padded before sale.

A crack that high, if it's even open, ought to be affecting the entire
clarinet progressively more severely as you go lower especially on the right
hand section. Anyway, it doesn't seem to me it would stop the B from speaking
- it would function as a register key and make the lowest chalumeau notes
tend to sound a twelfth higher. If it's only the E/B that won't speak, the
keys are probably out of adjustment. The pads themselves may or not be to
blame. Can you get the instrument to a competent repairman?

-Karl Krelove