Klarinet Archive - Posting 000065.txt from 2002/09
From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net> Subj: RE: [kl] reed strength for darker tone Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 08:06:38 -0400
> -----Original Message-----
> From: William Wright [mailto:w8wright@-----.net]
>
> I don't have measuring tools, but just for the fun of it, I put a reed
> on my mouthpiece and looked edgewise to see where the light shines
> through. It appears that my facing is a full 20 mm = 40 units, which
> is definitely longer than most of the numbers in the catalog. But
> since I have no practical way to measure the opening, I can't compare
> length to opening.
>
>
Well, it's a little more involved than that, anyway. The original Brand
refacing kits came with a set of feeler gauges - thin metal strips made of
(hopefully) accurate thickness - that you slide between the mouthpiece
facing and a piece of glass that's marked with lines for the measurement.
The thinnest gauge in the set was .0015" (.037mm). The length measurement
that most people cite in describing a facing curve is actually the length to
which that gauge can be slid down between the glass and the mouthpiece. It
isn't the absolute bottom of the curve, just a very close but standard
approximation.
David is correct about the tip gauges, which are entirely separate from the
tools used for measuring the curve length. The taper gauges Brand supplied
(of a couple of different types) were notoriously inconsistent. I've never
heard the same complaints about the thickness gauges, and many people use
standard automotive gauges (made to measure spark plug gaps), so I don't
know if the same issues of measurement error exist in length specifications.
More than you probably wanted to know...
Karl Krelove
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