Klarinet Archive - Posting 000992.txt from 1998/10

From: "Tim Roberts" <timr@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Basset Questions
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 21:54:27 -0400

On 22 Oct 1998 11:57:06, Shouryu Nohe <jnohe@-----.edu> wrote:
>On Thu, 22 Oct 1998, Tim Roberts wrote:
>> Basset clarinets are pitched in A. What about basset horns? The WW&BW
>> catalog says the bore on a basset horn is exactly equal to the bore on
>> an Eb alto. Is a basset horn, then, pitched in Eb?
>
>Unless it is referring to a particular brand, the statement about the
>bores isn't true, I think. The bore of a basset horn is more comparable
>to the bore of a Bb clarinet, where as the Alto's bore is generally a
>drawn mean between the Bb and the Bass.

I fear that I was somewhat imprecise in my original statement, implying that
WW&BW was distributing false information. Please allow me to restate it here
more precisely.

WW&BW did not make any statements like "the bore on a basset horn is exactly
equal to the bore on an Eb alto." However, the one Eb alto clarinet for
which they list a bore size is .709", and the one basset horn for which they
list a bore size (Buffet, I believe) is .708" (I may have those reversed).

My sentence was a restatement of this observation, but in restating I added
an unintended connotation. I apologize for the confusion.

This does lend credence to Dan Leeson's post, in which he suggests that
modern production basset horns are actually alto clarinets in F extended to
low C.

Dan, you said that the narrow tube of a "traditional" basset horn makes the
air column unstable. What does that mean, exactly? Is it more difficult to
stay in tune over the range of the instrument? Does this refer to unintended
overtones? Or is it something more subtle?

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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