Klarinet Archive - Posting 000199.txt from 2000/05
From: Topper <leo_g@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] back to: Bells & Whistles
Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 07:30:10 -0400
At 09:04 AM -0700 5/3/00, Kevin Fay (LCA) wrote:
>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
>
I suspect that the ring of the bell does make a difference because it adds
mass at a physical point that has an overall effect on the frequency and
response and would actually have even more effect if the tenon and socket
did not have the damping factor of the tenon cork. In fact a one-piece
greenline clarinet will radiate quite differently than a carefully
duplicated 4-section instrument. Add a mouthpiece and barrel which uses a
nickel-silver tuning slide to it(doing away with the mpc cork) and you
would get even more of a difference. Add a ribbed post design and slightly
heavier rod stock and keys and get even more.
Getting the staff and funding to obtain the equipment to prove this would
be more od a challenge than finding a human being who could blow notes
consistently enough to make the measurement accurate. So to do this it
would be plausible to construct a machine which mimmicks the human
embochure and wind - an anatomically corrrect computor-controlled head and
bellows drawn up on a cad 3-d engineering wireframe.
The point would be is where in the range of human hearing and under what
conditions does this make an audible difference enough to warrant design
changes and are they desireable ones, and which changes are worthwhile
improvements?
Cheers, Leo
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/leo_g@-----.com/
"You Take The High Notes" http://helius.carroll.com/p/leo_g/ There is a
difference between "dealers" and musicians that love not only the sound of
music but the tools which make it possible for people to play music. It's
important to set things free so they may ultimately find their way to
their intended parties. I am especially interested in Musical Instrument
History and technical data. Please email me with interesting links. Thank
you:-) Leo
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Cheers, Leo
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/leo_g@-----.com/
"You Take The High Notes" http://helius.carroll.com/p/leo_g/ There is a
difference between "dealers" and musicians that love not only the sound of
music but the tools which make it possible for people to play music. It's
important to set things free so they may ultimately find their way to
their intended parties. I am especially interested in Musical Instrument
History and technical data. Please email me with interesting links. Thank
you:-) Leo
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