Klarinet Archive - Posting 000188.txt from 2000/05

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Bells & Whistles
Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 07:29:59 -0400

David B. Niethamer asked:

<<<In the vague recesses of what's left of my memory, I recall seeing Benade
at some conference or other with a bell that had very little taper on the
inside. . . I also have a similar vague memory of the Selmer Mazzeo
clarinets using a variation of this bell.

. . . how can a bell ring - on the *outside* mind you, and furthest away
from the mouthpiece where the sound
is generated - have an effect on the sound? I know that different bells
affect the sound/tuning of clarinets, but it has to be in the bore and
taper, since the wood is too thick to vibrate in any significant way, no?>>>

Beats me. As I suggested in my earlier post, I suspect that it doesn't have
anything to do with the metal bell ring at all -- that the difference in
sound is likely the result of cutting off the last 1/3 inch of the bell,
effectively making it shorter. OTOH, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the
clarinet bell actually acted as a bell for this note (similar to a trumpet
bell). You can order several different bell tapers and diameters for most
artist-level trumpets, so it would surprise me that there wouldn't be a
noticeable difference in sound when changing the bell dimensions.

The bells that I'm speaking of were not Selmer Mazzeos -- I've played those
only in their Bundy incarnation, and therefore all bets are off -- but
Buffet R-13 bells that were shortened in this manner by an older friend of
mine who went to college in Boston in the '60s. (May have been a drug
thing, who knows?). Either way, putting his shortened R-13 bell on *my*
R-13 resulted in a different-sounding B natural. Might even have been
"better," in the sense that the tone quality was closer to the notes around
it -- but not by enough for me to spend any money having it done to my
horns.

Perhaps the effect is not unlike one we've already noted here on the list --
how the response of your reed will change if you hack off from the butt end.
I have occasion to do this, as I use Bb reeds on my eefer. Being the
curious type, I usually try the cut down reeds before and after on my Bb;
there is indeed a difference.

. . . which leads to the anecdote/tip du jour. First the tip -- I use
ordinary garden pruning shears to cut down the butt ends of my Bb --> Eb
reeds. Works fast, doesn't make a lot of mess. (It might pinch the fibers,
but I don't care.) Anyway, the other night I was standing at the kitchen
sink cutting the butts off a box of Vandoren V-12s when my wife (an oboe
player) ambled up.

"Honey" she asked, "doesn't it work better if you clip the *other* end?"

Sigh.

kjf

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