Klarinet Archive - Posting 000514.txt from 1998/09

From: "David C. Blumberg" <reedman@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] re:beating the heck out of a Clarinet
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 16:24:41 -0400

Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 11:05:05 -0400
From: "Buckman, Nancy" <nebuckman@-----.us>
Subject: Re: Breaking in my R-13
Don't leave a wet swab in the case, don't put a shove-it in your horn,
but it's OK to use Damp-its and put orange or lemon peels in the case.
C'mon people - none of this makes sense. Trees live in the forest where
it is wet and dry and hot and cold. When they die and fall down, the
soft porous ones rot and those that contain a lot of sap and oil lay
there for years and some even last for centuries as they become
petrified. The dense sappiness of grenadilla is what makes it ideal for
woodwinds and you either get a piece with no inherent defects and it
doesn't crack or you get a piece that is weak in some area and thus,
splits.
I have five wooden Buffets of varying quality and the only one that
shows any sign of weakness is my E-fer, which has a few checks in the
bore that have never amounted to anything. I also have a Loree oboe and
a Gordet oboe and neither of them have given me a minute's problem. I
run a swab through them after playing, when and if, I take them apart to
put them in their cases. They have never been oiled. I play them in ice
cold orchestra pits and then go to warm green rooms. They get stored in
my car trunk when it is sweltering outside or freezing cold and stay
there until I am ready to play a gig. The oldest of these horns is 40
years and the newest one I have had for 20 years. I eat and drink when
I play them. They are padded in cork and the only time they have had
new pads put on them is when the cork pads were applied. Some of these
pads are thirty-five years old and still functioning fine. The only
maintenance that I perform on these instruments is to dismantle them
twice a year and wash them in warm soapy water and then dry them well
and use a little key oil as I re-assemble them. They continue to serve
me well.
So, as you can see, I don't put much stock in all this babying and
oiling stuff. I don't beat my sticks to death, but I don't go to any
great lengths to take special care of them either.
Nancy
Nancy Buckman
Anne Arundel Community College
Arnold, MD USA
nebuckman@-----.us

=================================================================

You DON'T beat your sticks to death??? Sounds to me like you sure beat the
heck out of them! Don't do any of that to a new horn, or cracking will be a
guarantee :) I don't bore oil either. A humistat is a great device to
keep the case humidified.

David Blumberg
reedman@-----.com
http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Music/Blumberg.html

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