Klarinet Archive - Posting 000063.txt from 1996/11

From: Steve Prescott <mipresc@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Mouthpiece Mania/freezing
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 12:16:05 -0500

All this was said regarding freezing and molecule alignment:

>At 03:04 PM 11/2/96 -0600, you wrote:
>> Anyway you can see where this is leading to (better and closer
>>shaves??), nope lets take a mouthpiece instead. No need to speculated I
>>already dipped the sucker in the nitro. The main fear of mine was that
>>the facing or the dimentions of the mouthpiece would change (warp). The
>>mouthpiece was not damaged at all, instead the darn thing plays better
>>than ever. The reponse was better and the resistance was less when
>>blowing. Overall the mouthpiece resonates better and because of this
>>tempering I expect the mouthpiece facing to last at least 5 times more
>>than the average joe mouthpiece.
>==================================
> No, no, no, no...sorry...I don't buy it. And no one else should, either.
>This reminds me of the New York flutist--I forget his name just now--who,
>for quite a high fee, would "homogenize" your flute by attaching it to a
>device which vibrated the flute rapidly, so as to "align the molecules."
>I'm embarrased to say that one of my good friends--a remarkable
>flutist--actually did this. He spent the money, had the molecules
>supposedly aligned, and proclaimed the flute sounded better. Well, he
>sounded great before he fell for this scam, and sounded just as terrific
>afterwards--but not better or different to anyone else's ears but his own.
> As Rosario Mazzeo once said, "Thinking will make it so." I agree.
>Thinking *will* make it so. And, processes such as the ones mentioned above
>have merit only in so far as the purchaser, having spent the requisite $100
>(or whatever the going rate is these days), now believes his or her
>instrument sounds $100 better. Right again, Mr. Mazzeo...thinking has made
>it so. But "homogenzing" or "freezing" ... sorry folks, it just ain't so.
> "The response was better...the resistance was less." C'mon !! Please.
>You are asking us to believe no other factors changed in the
>reed-mouthpiece-ligature-embouchure-air production relationship, and thus
>you know, quantitatively, that there was an actual, measurable difference in
>how the mouthpiece responded ??
>Nope...I'm not buying.
>
>Stan Geidel

I don't exactly know what freezing does to non ferrous metals. I do,
however, know that heating a non-ferrous metal (brass for instance) so it
appears red (red hot)...I can't say as I know the exact temperature -
softens the metal. This process is known as annealing. They, the purveyors
of the deep freeze, claim the freezing process produces the same effect as
annealing. Also, what is meant by "aligning the molecules?"...Sounds like
hocus pocus to me.

Any metallurgists out there that can clarify this. Is it "alchemy" or maybe
"The Emperors New Clothes?"

Steve.

Steve Prescott
Instrument Rep.Tech./ Clarinetist
Indiana State University
mipresc@-----.edu