Klarinet Archive - Posting 000650.txt from 1998/01

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: wooden bells
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 10:11:22 -0500

To add a remark to this -- it's far cheaper to damp the vibrations of
a metal bell than to get a wooden one made. Some people use lead foil in
strategic places - even BluTak has some effect.
(I don't know whether BluTak is to be found in the States; it's a sticky,
(sometimes) removable silicone-based putty-like substance, particularly
for those who like sticking posters on the walls of their rented rooms).
Roger Shilcock
On Wed, 14 Jan 1998, Nick Shackleton wrote:

> Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 10:11:21 -0500
> From: Nick Shackleton <njs5@-----.uk>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.us
> To: klarinet@-----.us
> Subject: wooden bells
>
> Dan Leeson asks when metal bells for basset horns and bass clarinets came in.
> For basset horns the answer is easy: the earliest basset horns known all had
> metal bells (I couldn't say offhand when were the earliest basset horns with
> wooden bells).
> As regards the bass clarinet I believe that the modern shape upturned metal
> bell may have been invented by Sax. Certainly in Paris Buffet jeune made his
> earliest bass clarinets with a wooden bell and his later Sax-influenced
> model with an up-turned metal bell. But on the other hand the very earliest
> bass clarinets also had flared metal bells like the earliest basset horns.
> I think that Steve Trier was probably inspired by German makers such as
> Heckel who made good instruments with wooden bells.
> Nick
>
>