Klarinet Archive - Posting 000785.txt from 1999/05

From: Sfdr@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl]Understanding Moennig Adjusted Clarinets
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 01:40:00 -0400

Dear Mr. Fobes,
You obviously had trouble understanding some of Moennig's acoustical
tuning techniques on my last posting. I will now try to explain them in more
detail.

Alvin Swiney
In a message dated 5/16/99 12:57:08 PM EST, reedman@-----.com writes:

<< I was extremely interested in Alvin Swiney's detailed account of the work
that Mr. Moennig performed on A Buffet clarinets. I have never played an A
clarinet that had been worked on in this fashion by Mr Moennig, but some of
the "solutions" that Mr Swiney described I found a little troublesome.

There is no question that Mr Moennig was the pre-eminant craftsman of his
time and was very innovative, however, I would hate to see someone read Mr
Swiney's post and take his/her clarinet to a local crafstman and have this
type of work repeated as if it were a "recipe" for a better A clarinet.

One of the problems with Mr. Moennig's work (as reported by Mr Swiney) is
that the intoduction of 2mm of tube at the top end of the clarinet
represents a larger percentage of change to short tube notes (closest to
the mouthpiece) than to long tube notes.

Considering how sharp and stuffy the throat tone are on new A
clarinets, the additional 2mm on the barrel will bring the G, G# and A down
to pitch. The undercutting of these problematic tone holes will improve the
timbre without making these normally sharp pitches even sharper.

This localized lengthening has a
great affect on the tones closest to the mouthpiece and much less affect on
the bell tones.

And that is where the affect is most needed too, on the sharp throat
tones. As the lower right hand notes tend to be flat.

Most Buffet A clarinets are flat on throat Bb.

That is because the original register tubes are too small, too short
and of the wrong taper for American Pitch standards of A-440

With a
properly pitched mouthpiece a 67mm barrel will cause the throat Bb to be
very low.

"Properly Pitched" is a subjective term which is impossible to
define. The success of Mr. Moennig's tuning work was based on his sensitivity
and experience in matching the volume of each players mouthpiece to the
volume of his custom bored Moennig barrel. For example, If the bore of the
mouthpiece was too large, Mr. Moennig would ream the barrel less to
compensate for the overall volume of the upper bore. If the mouthpiece was
too small Mr. Moennig would enlarge the Barrel to make the same volume
compensation.

The pitch may be raised by shortening the register vent tube, but
my experience proves that a reduction of length beyond .020" causes
instability in the altissimo and an unfocused quality on the bell tones.

The pitch can be raised by opening the register tube as well. As for
the Instability of the altissimo register, You might want to try a better
mouthpiece. I would suggest one made by Frank Kaspar. :)

Also, a 67mm barrel causes the pitch of throat tones E-G to become quite
low.

That is why Mr. Moennig undercut those tone holes drastically with an
Acute angled tool. This brought the lower register up without changing the
upper 12th partial. i.e. This technique kept the 12ths from spreading or
widening.

Mr Swiney also asserts that essentially moving the tones holes by 2mm
allows for the use of larger tone holes for improved resonance. This may be
true for some pitches, but when one enlarges the diameter of the tone hole
the fundamental pitch can become quite sharp in the pp.

This is correct! That is why tone hole enlargement should be
performed in conjunction with undercutting.(as I stated earlier) Undercutting
of tone hole will allow the repairman to alter one register without causing
the opposing register to change in pitch or timbre.

I may be incorrect, but I seem to remember reading that Mr. Moennig also
reamed a portion of the upper joint of the A clarinet and that the
"Moennig" style barrel (reduced bore with a reverse taper) was intended as
a correction for the enlarged upper bore.

Yes, he did ream the upper bore periodically. This was done when the
upper joint had contracted and was radically different from the bore profile
of Ralph McLane's clarinet. This enlargement helped make the general
response better on the A clarinet. The Reverse taper was not designed to
compensate for the bore. It was an acoustical innovation, designed to
improve the Pitch and Focus throughout the different registers of the
Clarinet.

Further, extensive undercutting of tone holes to raise pitch causes
instability and the sense that the "target area" for centering the pitch is
quite large.

There are over one thousand variations and styles of undercutting and
there are equally as many resulting products of undercutting. For Example a
craftsman can use a Round tool, a concaved tool, a convexed tool, an acute
tool, a parabolic tool. ect. And each tool can be introduce to different
levels of penetration to the tone hole cylinder. These tone hole profile
variations gave Mr. Moennig the ability to intricately manipulate the
harmonic structure of woodwind instruments.

Another point that may have been overlooked in Mr Swiney's dicussion is
that for many years Buffet did not offer a clarinet pitched for American
orchestras. I suspect that the introduction of the R-13 in the 1950's may
have been the beginning of the designation "F" in the serial number which
indicates "French pitch" (A@-----. My
only point is that the type of radical reworking of buffet A clarinets is
not required for more modern instruments.

On the contrary! The need for tuning on the A clarinet is greater
now than it has ever been. In addition to shortening the bell on the R-13,
Mr. Moennig had to lower the register vent by 5 mm and even shorten the
middle joint 1/8 inch on the RC and French (F) models.

I do agree that the Buffet R-13 A clarinet is the most flawed instrument
that Buffet makes.

That is a major understatement!

I brought this point up at the factory in 1993 and the
response was "buy a Festival!" A little glib perhaps. I would like to see
Buffet make an effort to improve the R-13 A clarinet.

They have made an effort. They now offer better cases and swabs with
them. LOL

Perhaps they could
offer two versions of the R-13, original and improved.

Then nobody will buy the "NEW IMPROVED" Festive and Elite Models at
the more expensive price. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I have an illustrated sheet on the Moennig tuning and undercutting
concepts. If you are interested in receiving one. Please forward your
street address to me.

Thank
You,
Alvin
Swiney

Affordable Music Co.
P.O.
Box 4245

Virginia Beach, VA 23454

757-412-2160 fax 412-2158
E
mail sfdr@-----.com

Clark W Fobes

Clark W Fobes
Web Page http://www.sneezy.org/clark_fobes

>>

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