Klarinet Archive - Posting 000069.txt from 1996/03

From: Fred Jacobowitz <fredj@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: b/f# changes with joint alignment (?)
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 10:56:29 -0500

Bill,
What you have just found out is not new. Leon Russianoff once got on a
real kick about aligning the barrel and the upper joint. I noticed a
little difference with my clarinet but never bothered because it was so
slight. However, I'm sure on other instruments it makes a bigger
difference. Just thought you'd like to hear that you are in good company
- great minds...

Fred Jacobowitz

On Mon, 26 Feb 1996, Bill Fogle wrote:

> My no-frills Buffet R13 is beginning to show signs of use. A few days ago
> I assembled my instrument and began practicing. The chal. b (or clarion
> f# ) wasn't coming through. I investigated pads until my vision blurred.
> I concentrated on covering the tone hole accurately. All to no avail.
> Quite by accident, I rotated the top joint counter-clockwise a bit. The
> note made a full recovery. Now fully in Experiment Mode, I made the same
> degree of shift clockwise. This "worsened" the tone. I find this
> fascinating because I was unable to reproduce this phenomenon on any
> other clarinet. Also, this is the first time in three years of pretty
> casual joint aligning that I've encountered a problem. I'm more than a
> bit hesitant to post this because I'm afraid the "discovery" I've made is
> basic: I changed the physics of the instrument. But, what does puzzle me
> is that it has never happened before. Maybe I need to start putting
> pencil notches on the joints where the alignment "plays" the best!
>
> ***********************
> Bill Fogle
> Washington, DC
> bfogle@-----.edu
> ***********************
>