Klarinet Archive - Posting 000312.txt from 2001/12

From: Virginia Benade <vwb@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] NX clarinet, Fox/Benade model
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 01:29:51 -0500

Virginia Benade wrote:
> The originals, especially the A, have shown some deterioration
> since Art's death in 1987

and Doug Sears, dsears@-----.net, responded:
>Just out of curiosity, what is the nature of the deterioration? Pads
>falling apart, wood shrinking, cracking, or what?

answer:
The original pair of NXs were very little played after 1986, when Art
was diagnosed as terminally ill and could no longer play. After he
died, his friend George Jameson of Racine, WI, borrowed them long-term
because George wanted to make his own NX pair, which he did. George,
unfortunately, then died of pancreatic cancer (some time in 90s). I
visited his widow and brought them home. George was an experienced
woodwind repairman, and he no doubt made necessary key adjustments and
replaced pads as needed while he had them. Stephen Fox can tell you
more about the specifics of the condition he found the instruments in
when he came to Cleveland to study them. I think they were still just
barely playable, but needed some loving care from Steve.

Adjustments and pads are not all that serious. The drying out of the
wood is serious in that it affects the dimensions in subtle ways. But
the most serious deterioration in the NXs was due to Art having achieved
some subtle bore profiles by carefully painting the bores with built-up
layers of polyurethane varnish. The A has some especially thick
built-up sections. The thicker the varnish layer, the more likely is it
to develop cracks and have bits of it fall off, mostly when the
instrument is being played. The bore of the B-flat seems to be in a
good enough state that one can get reasonably meaningful measurements of
it, but I think the A is getting iffy, both to play and to measure.
Steve Fox, is this more or less true?

I have not decided on the final disposal of the original NXs.
Originally I thought I would donate them to the Bate Collection at
Oxford, but they allow music students to borrow the instruments with the
intent of playing them in recital. Philip Bate himself told me he was
concerned with this in relation to a few things in the collection that
are very old and very fragile. I also slightly prefer to think of them
staying on this side of the Atlantic.

Virginia Benade, Cleveland, OH

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