Klarinet Archive - Posting 000663.txt from 2000/08

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] Plastic, wood and the G hole
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 20:52:13 -0400

Plastic vs wood has been talked to death, but still I want to say
something:

An interesting demonstration would be to set up a machine that
produces a tone by blowing into a simple tube of some sort. Because of
its simplicity, the tube could be replicated in various materials, and
presumably the machine would blow in a repeatable manner.
Then just swap tubes and see what happens to the frequency
analyses.

Since a standing wave involves reflection of colliding masses, and
since every action produces an equal and opposite reaction, I believe
that the mass (weight, if you wish) of the tube must affect the distance
travelled by the tube during its 'recoil'. Therefore phase
relationships of the reflections will vary with materials of differing
density, and so will the final shape of the 'summed' standing wave.
The question is: Will the effect be large enough to be noticeable
to the human ear?
Since a sound wave is also a pressure wave, we must ask about the
compressibility of the material as well as its mass.

As a practical matter, does the different in wall thicknesses of G
hole chimneys tell us anything about these questions? Are the
differences (that I have described in other messages) merely the
manufacturer's convenience based on which machine tool(s) the
manufacturer happens to own? Or is there an acoustic motive behind it?
Certainly if a thinner wall has an acoustic effect, then so does
the material.

As a recent (very recent) ex-owner of plastic and a new owner of
wood, I cannot convince myself that the difference in 'feel' while
playing my new wood instrument is merely its weight.

Cheers,
Bill

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