Klarinet Archive - Posting 000246.txt from 2002/11

From: b5w@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] Duct Tape clarinet
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 11:27:47 -0500

<><> Rebecca=A0Brennan) wrote:
Anyway, Any clarinet collectors out there want to buy it when it is
finished?

Rebecca, just after I graduated from school, one of my friends started
his own surfboard shop. He announced that he was going to build a
paper surfboard as a publicity stunt and be filmed surfing in Australia
with it.

I took his plan to be an idle dream. However....

He went straight to International Paper and convinced them to help him
with the technical details ***AND*** to pay his way to Australia
***AND*** to pay him a fee for doing the commercials.

I presume someone here on the list would pay you a few dollars for a
duct tape clarinet just as a novelty. But if you're really going to do
this, think about approaching the clarinet companies, or perhaps 3M who
is a huge tape manufacture and has very large budgets. Build something
simpler first --- such as a six hole unkeyed flute --- so that you can
show potential sponsors that a duct tape wind instrument can produce a
musical note and doesn't burst into pieces when you blow into it.

...and of course, since most clarinet manufacturers are based overseas,
keep your ears open for a chance to travel under their sponsorship.

I'm sure that you would need to invest more time and effort finding the
sponsor than building the instrument. So don't sell short the total
effort required. But the rewards could be significant.

Finally, Benade's book titled "Horns, Strings, and Harmony" has a full
chapter on how to build your own keys and pads for a homemade clarinet,
and it has the proper dimensions for a straight cylinder bore and hole
diameters & where to drill them, and so forth. This book costs only
$15 or so. Perhaps it would be worth buying just so that you can
estimate how much effort would be involved.

Cheers,
Bill

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