Klarinet Archive - Posting 000750.txt from 1999/11

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Playing on trees?
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 23:15:26 -0500

At 10:07 AM 11/18/1999 -0800, Confused Colleen in NH wrote:
>"all of a sudden it went dead"
>
>Right, you might think that the reed was being over
>soaked, that's what I thought. So I went up to a 4
>Grand Concert and tried the Zonda out as well. Maybe
>these brands aren't good? No matter which size reed I
>try. Ie: Grand Concert 3, 3.5 or Zondas, it still
>happens. About ten minutes of playing and the clarinet
>dies. I'm not even sure the reed vibrates at all. Now,
>I guess the question is, could the reed be too soft
>and soaked? If Yes, then why is it still happening
>when I have tried harder reeds?
>
>It doesn't happen with certain notes, it's the entire
>clarinet.
>
I had a similar problem with an alto sax not too long ago. It would always
start out playing fine, then, after a while, would become stuffy and
difficult. Repeated checks by myself and a technician turned up nothing.
I finally determined that one pad near the top of the horn was seating, but
relatively weakly, on one side. After I played a while, this pad would get
wet and swell where it WAS well seated, causing it to stop sealing on the
other side. Of course, when the tech checked it, dry, it looked fine.
Perhaps some variation of this scenario is affecting your clarinet. In
particular, check your throat A pad. If the Ab bridge is very closely
adjusted and the A pad swells a bit, it might be enough to raise the Ab
key. That would make a mess of almost every note!

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://homepages.go.com/~zoot14/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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