Klarinet Archive - Posting 000601.txt from 2000/11

From: "Doug Sears" <dsears@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Poor Man's A Clarinet (was: Re: [kl] Fantastique or catastrophe?)
Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 12:54:26 -0500

I gathered together a collection of various sizes of string and cotton
cord, my Bb clarinet, and an electronic tuner, and got a surprise! I had
heard that the cord would make the pitch lower by lowering the speed of sound
within the cord, due to frictional effects of the fuzzy fibers. I found that
large diameter fuzzy cord gave a very stuffy sound, not even worth measuring
the pitch. However, when I stuck a 1/4 inch diameter wooden dowel up the
bore, the pitch was lowered almost a semitone without affecting the tone very
much.

Someone who was desperate to convert a Bb clar. to A might consider
experimenting with this. Slightly larger than 1/4 inch ought to give a full
semitone. Forget the string -- use something rigid, like wood or plastic. The
pitch lowering comes from decreasing the effective bore size.

--Doug
----------------------------
Doug Sears dsears@-----.org/~dsears

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