Klarinet Archive - Posting 000814.txt from 2001/10

From: "Doug Sears" <dsears@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Wooden bells
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 02:46:42 -0400

Dan Leeson wrote:
>Fox did other things to the bell, such as placing about 15 holes in a
>circular pattern (each hole the width of a pencil eraser) about 1 inch
>above the flare.

This is a feature of Arthur Benade's NX design which is pretty much
independent of the register key and bore innovations of the NX, and which
could, IMO, be used to improve any clarinet design. I don't think there was
much about those bell holes in Benade's (posthumous) published articles on
the NX, but there are some details in his lecture notes in the Benade online
archive, at
http://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/marl/Benade/PDF/Benade-NX83.pdf , on page 15,
titled "Item 3 of the list/The Bell is a Surrogate Tone Hole Lattice."

The sharp change from a nearly straight bore to a conical bell acts like
having one more open tone hole at the bottom of the bore. The extra little
holes in the bell add up to the effect of one more big hole, so that the bell
with little holes acts acoustically like a straight pipe with _two_ more open
tone holes below the last closed one. This makes the low E and third-line B
on an NX clarinet (or the low C on Dan's basset horn) have a tone more like
the other notes in the scale. It also changes the radiation pattern of the
lowest note, with some of the sound coming sideways out of those little
holes, which should make it easier to mic a clarinet from the side.

--Doug
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Doug Sears dsears@-----.net

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