Klarinet Archive - Posting 000123.txt from 2001/05

From: rgarrett@-----.edu
Subj: Re: [kl] Cracking Clarinets
Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 11:41:16 -0400

At 08:23 AM 05/03/2001 -0700, you wrote:
> I'm not disagreeing with you because what you say makes sense to me.
>
> But just for the record, the clarinet that I'm playing (Bb) cracked
> after 3 or 4 years. The cause was fairly obvious. The previous owner
> moved from a cool, moist oceanside town to a baking, dry desert city.
> One of the ideas that I debated at the time was whether I should buy
> a pinned instrument. My attitude was, "Okay, now the stresses _are_
> relieved. Probably it's safer than a new instrument (besides
>having just the right tone and ease of breathing that I wanted).
>
> But when I go travelling this summer, I'm taking my plastic
> instrument with me and leaving my wood instrument at home!

But Bill - all you have done is coroborate the testimonies regarding
temperature and humidity having a direct effect on a clarinet. I sai that
I have not had one crack after one year because I don't subject it to those
kinds of variances.

It is still possible for a clarinet to crack - even without
temperature/humidity conditions varying and by taking care of it. It
happens. Still - it does not hurt, as you have pointed out above, to take
precautions.

Either way - I would avoid putting your wooden clarinet in the freezer.

Best wishes,
Roger Garrett

Roger Garrett
Clarinet Professor
Director, Symphonic Winds
Illinois Wesleyan University
School of Music
Bloomington, IL 61702-2900
Phone: (309) 556-3268
Fax: (309) 556-3121

"A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes
another's."
Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825)

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