Klarinet Archive - Posting 000605.txt from 1998/09

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] real subject: breaking in my R-13
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 02:09:33 -0400

On Thu, 17 Sep 1998, Cox, Graeme wrote:

> The discussion has been fascinating, but I'm still no closer to
> understanding the scientific basis of why and how one should "break-in"
> a new instrument.

Aha, there's the problem! You were looking for a scientific basis for
how to treat the instrument, but you were expecting it from a group of
musicians! ;-) If your children stay in music, you will become well
aware of the voodoo and mysticism which controls much of what musicians
do, because they will get caught up in it, too. One the standard answers
to almost any question about why we do certain things in a certain way is,
"Because that's the way we have always done it."

I read in the Instrumentalist magazine over 30 years ago about an
experiment conducted by a major manufacturer of clarinets. I think it was
Selmer. During a certain period, for half of the wooden instruments they
sold, they included detailed instructions about how to care for the
instrument, how to break it in, etc. They included a care and cleaning
kit, with key oil, bore oil, proper swabs, and more. They offered
periodic checkups and maintenance as a part of the purchase price.

But, for the other half of their wooden clarinets, they included no
instructions, no cleaning kit, no free maintenance and checkups, no bore
oil, etc.

After a year, they checked with the owners of the instruments. Their
findings were that nearly precisely the same percentage of instruments in
each group had cracked!

I think that what this proves is that if a clarinet is going to crack, it
is going to crack regardless of what you do to try to prevent it. If it
isn't going to crack, there is not much you can do to make it crack, short
of seriously abusing it.

As long as there have been grenadilla instruments, this has been a fact of
life - a certain number are going to crack, and there is no way to predict
which ones will do so, or when or under what circumstances it is going to
happen. The cracking is probably due to weaknesses or irregularities in
the grain of the wood. Being an organic material, every piece is going to
be different.

So, I would recommend not getting too concerned about it. Take normal
precautions, whatever they may be, such as avoiding rapid changes of
temperature, etc. Then, apply all your additional mental and emotional
energy to learning more about music and about becoming a better player.

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu

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