Klarinet Archive - Posting 000500.txt from 2000/09

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl]old instruments
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 20:23:32 -0400

Regarding changes that occur in clarinet wood due to time and weather/storage
conditions, Bill Wright wrote,
>As for the phrase "less useful", it's not impossible that a change could
>make a particular clarinet more useful rather than less, particularly if
>the instrument was an inexpensive mass-produced horn in the first place
>that wasn't optimized for any particular quality.

Not impossible, but I wouldn't like to bet on the odds. Seems I remember
from Eugenics 101, or whatever that class was (Anthro for the Addlepated?)
that in nature, most random mutations are lethal. A mutation beneficial
enough to lead to evolution is rare.

>So I had to assume that the wood in the barrel of my
>recently-purchased used horn had changed during years of storage and
>moving from one climate to another. No professional quality
>manufacturer would have shipped this horn with a barrel so far out of
>tolerance (so far as I know....[snip]).

I don't think I'd want to bet on those odds, either. I've seen some drastic
manufacturing whoopsies, including a neighbor child's trumpet shipped
*without valves*.

Lelia
(recessive)

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