Klarinet Archive - Posting 000955.txt from 1998/10

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] R-13s
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 20:53:40 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Fay (LCA) <kevinfay@-----.com>
Date: Wednesday, October 21, 1998 4:54 PM
Subject: [kl] R-13s

>Dee wrote:
>
><<<A woman who sits next to me in the community band happens to have an
>R-13. Now while the R-13 is certainly a fine horn, it does not seem to suit
>her. Here's why. From various reports and a very limited number of
personal
>trials, the R-13 is slightly harder blowing than some other pro horns
>especially in the altissimo register.>>>
>
>This added resistance is not a "problem" at all, but in fact a reason why
>the horn is the defacto professional standard. One benefit to the R-13 is
>that the resistance is fairly even across all registers of the
>instrument--consequently, wide intervals can be played with relative ease.

I very clearly stated that for most people this resistance is not a problem
(just as you have). Only that in her case is it significant as she has
chronic asthma that is steadily getting worse. What you or I might not even
notice would be a show stopper for her.

The degree of resistance does not necessarily define that a horn is a pro
instrument. I once tried a Pedlar student horn that had NO LEAKS and it had
so much resistance that even I found it difficult to play (and I regularly
"peg the needle" on lung capacity tests). Rather a pro horn is one with a
quality mechanism where they haven't "cheated" on the screws and rods, good
finishing on the wood, one with a good scale and intonation, etc. Every
manufacturer chooses their own tradeoffs to achieve what they believe to the
be optimum balance of tone, overall tuning, tuning between registers, etc.
Resistance is one of the elements that they trade.

Dee Hays
Canton, SD

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