Klarinet Archive - Posting 000183.txt from 2002/03

From: "Bill Edinger" <wde2@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] chokes
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 23:58:18 -0500

Years ago, when I first discovered that the bell of my Bb clarinet had a
smaller bore diameter at the top than the end of the bore of the lower
joint, I was a bit miffed that they didn't match and assumed that it was a
sloppy manufacturing error that I had missed for the previous five years,
but that it probably didn't matter much anyway. Flash forward to my middle
years, dedicated following of the Klarinet list, and Clark Fobes discussing,
of all things, the concept of a "choke" (same as in shotguns!) being an
important part of clarinet design. I was happily enlightened. A short
while later, examining my new (and very first) Eb clarinet, and I was
surprised to see a reverse-type of choke - that is, in this case, the bell's
bore is slightly wider than that of the end of the lower joint (which is all
one piece with the "upper joint" in this case). Can someone go a little
further into the idea of a choke in the bell, in regard to acoustical
function, closed vs open choke (or whatever you call narrower-than and
wider-than the main tube's bore), etc.? I find this very interesting, but
I'm totally ignorant of what this actually achieves. My 1914 Buffet A and
1907 Buffet Albert don't seem to have a choke ("fully open"?).

Bill Edinger
__________________
Music and wine are one.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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