Klarinet Archive - Posting 000666.txt from 1997/01

From: James Lytthans <lytthans@-----.NET>
Subj: Non-wood Clarinets
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 01:12:07 -0500

Maybe we have reached the of the plastic(k) thread, but here is one more
opservation (actually two):

1. Several years ago I played on a Selmer Signet composition clarinet
at a music conference and was very impressed. This horn was certainly
NOT a Bundy 1400. The keywork was first-rate and the sound/intonation
was excellent. Visually it looked more like wood than plastic.
However, it was a prototype, so I really don't know if it's available.
Check with a Selmer dealer.

2. About a century ago (when I was an under-graduate at USC), all
music majors were required to take a class called Musical Acoustics,
taught by an acoustician named Dr. Backus, who also happed to be a fine
amateur bassoon player. He was working at the time on a project
involving acoustical properties of clarinets made of different materials
other than wood. Dr. Backus had actually developed a wind-powered
"mouth" that could more or less "play" a clarinet mouthpiece, but he
really wanted human Guinea (sp?) pigs to work for him. He had produced
a variety of clarinets from rubber, Plexiglass, metal, glass, etc. and
was photographing oscilliscope/spectrum anaylizer images of the overtone
series. We were asked to play a series of tones on our Buffets, etc,
and then on his clarinets. The photographic results were astonishing!
They showed very little, if and difference in sound quality and overtone
intensities, as long as the medium was dense enough not to vibrate.
Thought I'd throw that in.

Jim Lytthans
Anaheim, CA