Klarinet Archive - Posting 000204.txt from 2000/01

From: Keith <100012.1302@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] klarinet Digest 7 Jan 2000 09:15:01 -0000 Issue 1956
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 10:11:53 -0500

Message text written by INTERNET:klarinet@-----.org
>From: gtg <gtgallant@-----.com>
Subject: RE: [kl] Re: Clarinet maker
Message-ID: <20000107004826.9288.qmail@-----.com>

<<The nickel plating had a bit more robust sound than
the silver on every instrument I tried. The silver
had (for lack of a better term) a"smoother"sound. Both
were good and I found instruments made with both kinds
of keys that I liked, but there was quite definitely
different characters to the sound.>>

The only way to prove this would be to use the SAME
clarinet and replate its keys. Comparing two
different clarinets with different key plating has too
many variables that destroy your hypothesis. The
clarinets compared would have to be perfectly similar
-a manufacturing impossibility for clarinets - in
order to make such bold assumptions. Even so, I don't
think key plating makes any difference in sound. The
keys do not vibrate, the air column does. If you can
generate enough wind energy to vibrate the clarinet
walls and keys, you may be supernatural! :)
<

The clarinet walls certainly vibrate - anyone can feel that. While I agre=
e
that the =

vibration of the keys will be trivial, a change of mass would affect the
vibration =

nodes of the walls. So it is just possible that keys can affect tone. Of
course,
lead would do as well as gold! Set against this, is an awfully big body o=
f
evidence that the wall material has an imperceptible effect on tone to th=
e
listener (maybe not to the player), because almost all the acoustic
energy is in the air column, not in the walls. It would definitely need a=

repeatable
test on the same instrument to provide good evidence.

Keith Bowen

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