Klarinet Archive - Posting 000912.txt from 2000/11

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] grainy wood
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 20:23:12 -0500

Ed Maurey posted:

<<<For what it is worth, I have a 1992 R-13 that has very grainy wood.
It is the sweetest playing horn I've ever played. Maybe it's the
wood?>>>

Sorry to break it to you, Ed, but *MY* 1974 R-13 is "The Sweetest
Clarinet Ever Made." It says so right inside the case!

. . . but seriously, it's possible. There was a study in the Saxophone
Journal a few years back on mouthpiece materials, centering on the
endless debate of rubber v. metal. I don't recall the specifics -- my
memory isn't that good, and if I saved the issue it's in a box somewhere
-- but the upshot was that, all things being equal (like interior
dimensions and facing), the tone of metal ones actually have fewer
high-frequency "spikes" and are therefore "less bright." The article
attributed the difference in tone color to how porous the material was.
Hard rubber was microscopically less porous, leading to a "brighter"
sound. =20

[Dan -- don't kill me; it wasn't my study. The point isn't "dark" or
"light" or whatever, just that the porosity/porousness had an effect on
the sound.]

Three friends and I confirmed the suspicion with a pile of Selmer C*s --
the metal ones did have less of an edge, and the interior dimensions
etc. seemed pretty close with the micrometers etc. that we had. (This
is what you do after the sax quartet rehearsal if one of the guys brings
a half-rack and you're not finished). We split 2 v. 2 over which we
liked better.

So, I surmise that the grain in the wood could very well have an effect
on the sound. Not enough for me to start scratching up the insides of
my horns, though. This might also explain why different woods sound a
bit different -- boxwood clarinets do sound a little different, even
though the acousticians say that it shouldn't matter. Bill McColl, my
teacher at the University of Washington, had Buffet make him a couple of
sets of boxwood horns; I've heard the difference with my own ears. =20

Leblanc and Patricola both make rosewood horns. I've never seen one in
person, though, and haven't had the opportunity to do a side-by-side
comparison. Has anyone?

Query why no more boxwood clarinets. Bill's seemed to work just fine; I
liked them when he let me try them out because they weigh so much less
than the mpingo ones. Looked spiffy, too.

kjf

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