Klarinet Archive - Posting 000386.txt from 1998/03

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Scientific American Article
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 14:44:09 -0500

At 09:27 PM 3/5/98 -0600, Ed Lacy wrote:
>A strange thing happened with our Howarth English horn. We received it,
>and I played it and found it to be very easy blowing, to be well in-tune
>and to have a nice tone quality. Then, the very next day, I gave it to a
>student to use in an orchestra rehearsal, and she liked it, too. However,
>before she finished the rehearsal, all the right hand keys had frozen up.
>I might have expected this on the plastic top joint, with its higher
>degree of thermal expansion and contraction, but was quite surprised that
>it happened on the wooden joint.

I am confused and curious. Does the plastic actually expand and contract
MORE than wood? And then is it able to WITHSTAND that better than wood
because of its very plasticity (lower moisture content, etc.), or does
plastic expand and contract LESS? Engineers and designers are invited to
respond.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.