Klarinet Archive - Posting 000605.txt from 2000/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Poor Man's A Clarinet (was: Re: [kl] Fantastique or catastrophe?)
Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 14:27:37 -0500

On Sat, 18 Nov 2000 09:54:26 -0800, dsears@-----.net said:

> 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.

Well done, Doug! (You did it for yourself.)

I agree with you that the change in the effective bore size is probably
the significant factor.

Just out of interest, where did you hear that frictional effects were
dominant?

When I had to move a clarinet to a significantly lower pitch, I used
loudspeaker cable, which worked better than string, as you suggest. I
repost here something I wrote in August for the Early Clarinet list:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

rbaxter@-----.com said:

> The only way I know of getting the result is to try different types of
> cord: shoe lace, leather thong, clothes line, whatever 'til you find
> the right diameter that works for you/your situation. I think I tied a
> nut or a small bolt to the bottom end for weight. I don't think it
> should coil up. I know it works but it's not really practical in the
> real world.
>
> It's a 'gimmick', like fixing a bike tire flat with friction tape :]

On the other hand, if you really have to change the pitch of a
particular clarinet in order to play with other instruments at a
significantly flatter pitch, it may be the only way.

A few years ago I had to play a concert including Wagner's Siegfried
Idyll and Wesendonck Lieder, Brahms violin concerto and something else,
that was being done on period instruments, at A@-----. The best I could
do at the time for a German style clarinet was a Belgian Albert system
instrument which had something of the right sort of sound. But it went
at 440, or even a little above.

The principal difficulty is avoiding thick cord near the toneholes. My
solution was to use double stranded loudspeaker cable (not the coaxial
sort) temporarily anchored to the wall of the instrument. I hitched a
short double length of waxed thread to the cable where it went past the
end of the tenon at the bottom of the top joint, and pulled the cable
tight against the bore with the free ends before assembling the
instrument. The cable was thus held in place by the double thread, and
the double thread itself held in place by friction at the joint as it
passed from inside to outside the clarinet. I made a small wire gadget
that held the top end inside the barrel.

The best cylinder generator for avoiding toneholes is obviously the
lowest one -- except that the cable then runs across the LH thumb hole.
I got round this by reducing the cable to just one of the inner plastic
covered wires for an inch and a half or so at that point, discarding the
outer cover of that wire and the entire other part of the double cable.

I did this on both Bb and A instruments. The effect on the sound was
actually positive, making the rather 'open' sound of the Alberts more
contained.

Several people commented on how much they liked the sound of this
'clarinet', and the solos in the Wesendonck lieder (a gift of a part, I
know) and the Siegfried Idyll were particularly applauded in a review of
the concert.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

... Monday is the root of all evil!

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