Klarinet Archive - Posting 000558.txt from 1998/07

From: ROBERT HOWE <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: Eb/Bb key
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 00:39:29 -0400

A couple more observations, as the Email pours in. The plugging method
described with epoxy and tape works fine, I used it to help an old
Buffet C clarinet that had some response problems, also did the top two
trill keys. Having those 4 holes in a row so close together is poison
on a small horn. The correction helps response and helps to center the
tone, altho I have not done a Fourier. I have done "W-curves", however,
which do not require sophisticated equipment (just a pencil, paper,
pocket calculator and Benade's textbook of acoustics).

Try it with your Bundy before you dissemble the Buffet.

Curiously, and as half-proof of my point, Loree found that re-designing
their low F resonance key (equivalent to a "low Bb-F atop the staff"
resonance key for the forked note on an Oehler clarinet) to be higher
and smaller, helped fix problems with low C#, C and B. All this from
one hole, which was just in the wrong place. Sales of their Tabuteau
model, which excluded this resonance key, have plummetted.

Further, the nicest low E you will ever find on an English horn is from
a 1923 Loree that my friend Bob Simon owns. The tone hole is two holes
on a newer model, one with a very tall irregular chimney to allow a
particular trill from D# to E. The old one has a single, larger hole,
with less turbulence. So it sounds better. And Everyone, and I mean
Everyone, just Everyone can hear this. But I digress into oboe talk, so
let me cease my prattle here.

Ciao,

Robert Howe

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