Klarinet Archive - Posting 000592.txt from 2000/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Fantastique or catastrophe?
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 07:43:54 -0500

On Thu, 16 Nov 2000 17:06:11 EST, LeliaLoban@-----.com said:

> Re. dangling a string (or some chicken guts) down the bore to lower
> the pitch, Gary Truesdail wrote,
>
> > What would happen if the string contained knots (to increase
> > diameter) at selected locations along its length? Would it assist
> > or be counter productive to the intended goal, or would it have
> > more/less effect in specific locations only?

[snip]

> I tried the experiment today. I took the same type of string (thin
> white cotton box-sealing twine, the classic type that cats play with
> and people who never throw anything away -- hrrrk -- use to make balls
> of string of world record size), tied six fat double knots in it and
> cut it so the overall length was the same as my "good" string, which
> hangs just to the end of the inside of the bell. Tried them both in
> the same clarinet where I'd been using the string previously, a 1937
> Buffet.

[snip of description of the radical effect of this]

Six at one blow, whilst admittedly not quite as much as the traditional
seven, does seem a bit extreme for a first trial:-)

It's well-known that bore modifications a distance 'd' down from the
mouthpiece have an effect on the twelfths associated with the
tube-lengths 1.5d and 3d. That's how the twelfths on the clarinet are
adjusted. (See Benade.)

So one judiciously placed knot would affect the twelfths of just one
small part of the instrument, being equivalent to a bore-modification at
that point. It would be a good way of experimenting to find the right
position for such a modification, and probably clarinet manufacturers
do something similar with prototypes. A bit of blutak (or a small
object) attached to a light thread would be quickly and easily
manipulated.

I once had to make a cylindrical mouthpiece more conical in a hurry, so
I bent a thin bit of clothes-hanger wire into a helix, with a protruding
central spike at one end. It was the right dimensions to fit snugly
into the bottom of the mouthpiece, with the spike pointing up towards
the slot. I experimented with different size and shape blobs of blutak
on the end of the spike until the effect was what I wanted.

It was only a temporary measure, and now I have a proper mouthpiece
designed for the instrument (my Ottensteiner copy), but at the time it
enabled me to play the Brahms Quintet at the RAH Promenade Concerts in
1987.

Major exposure for a bit of blutak.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... GUT : God's Undiscovered Thoughts

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org