Klarinet Archive - Posting 000897.txt from 2001/01

From: Ginger Calkins <gicalkin@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] re: first clarinet
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 14:45:22 -0500

I too have my first clarinet, a poor best-up Wurlitzer that barely
survived marching band. I keep it for sentimental reasons, because it
surely is not worth anything to anyone else....."Survived" is probably
stretching the truth, as during my final season of marching band, I
managed to snap the top 1/4" off the lower register, right below the
silver ring. My father the handyman "fixed" it for me [as we were told
the cost of the lower register piece basically was the cost of a new
horn] by
a: hot gluing the broken piece back on.
that didn't work; the hot glue did not have enough hold to keep the
parts together while the instrument was assembled.

b: "pinning" the broken piece back on.
after the glue didn't work, his next idea was to drill 3 tiny
holes down through the broken ring into the body of the instrument and
use tiny finishing nails as pins to hold the 2 pieces together. There
was marginally more success; the pins provided enough stability to keep
the part from twisting, however, the did not stay in the holes and when
the instrument was assembled, it would "strech" as the pins gradually
pulled out of the lower register.

c: "stapeling" the broken piece back on
since the problem with the nails dropped vertically was that they
would not hold the two parts while the horn was assembled, he then bent
2 nails into a staple shape, and drilled through both the the ring and
the lower register, and tapped the staples in. That actually did hold
the horn together, but by that time it was an unsightly mess; there was
the smear of hot glue all around the ring, which probably helped seal
the whole mess together, and on the inside, one of the holes he'd
drilled chipped out on one of the edges, the result being that everytime
I put my horn together and twisted the upper and lower registers for
that final connection, the broken edges scored the cork AND the plastic
of the upper register.

Suffice it to say, when I finally joined band in college, the director
took one look at my horn....we hadn't even started playing yet...and
said "Come see me after band. I have a horn that you can play on." :-

ginger

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