Klarinet Archive - Posting 000034.txt from 2000/08

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] The manufacturer's view
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 04:17:39 -0400

Could be different damping effects from different woods, but what could
the mechanism be?
The absorbed energy presumably heats up the wood. No doubt, really black
clarinets radiate this energy away more efficiently
(:^|).....
Roger S.

On Thu, 3 Aug 2000, William Wright wrote:

> Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 10:52:16 -0700 (PDT)
> From: William Wright <Bilwright@-----.net>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] The manufacturer's view
>
> 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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