Klarinet Archive - Posting 000026.txt from 2000/08

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] The manufacturer's view
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 13:52:16 -0400

Still being undecided as to whether I want to buy a professional
instrument, I have talked (email'd) with someone who apparently is an
avid player as well as being employed by a clarinet manufacturer.
The topic of discussion was whether material affects tone? Or is
shape of air cavity the only relevant parameter?
Klarinetters have discussed this issue many times, of course; but I
found it interesting to ask the question of a person who is an avid
player and also has unrestricted access to an almost unlimited number of
instruments that are nominally identical -- and 'nominally' is an
important word, I agree -- except that they are made from different
woods.
It wouldn't be proper for me to quote email, but I suppose there's
no harm in my saying that the following opinion came from a Howarth
employee. I happen to be leaning towards Howarth's S2.

One of my questions was, "Does a particular type of wood respond to
your tools differently enough that you believe that the air cavity isn't
exactly the same as with other woods?"
The answer was: "No. You already know that no two instruments are
identical, and some woods crack more easily than others, but I do not
believe that one particular wood has a systematic bias towards a
particular shape or interior smoothness or anything else." (We were
discussing only the legitimate woods for clarinet.)
My other question was obvious: "When _you_ play nominally identical
instruments of different woods, can you hear a difference?"
The answer was "Yes. Depending on your own playing habits, you may
notice the difference more or less, but I definitely notice a
difference. I prefer cocobolo because it is slightly more resonant but
also less 'warm'." Although this person did not use exactly the
following words, the gist of it was: "A clarinet absorbs some energy,
and whatever the clarinet does with this energy affects the tone. How
could it not?"

...well, I'm not trying to resurrect an argumentative thread, and I
have no particular bias myself (having played only one instrument for
any length of time), but I thought you might like to hear an opinion
from someone who can test clarinets under more controlled and
reproducible conditions than the average person and who doesn't have any
financial reason (that I know of) to steer me away from a particular
wood.

Cheers,
Bill

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