Klarinet Archive - Posting 001077.txt from 2003/03

From: Gary Truesdail <gir@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Cylinders vs. Cones
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 13:12:14 -0500

I have in my possession a hand made instrument that has both the body with the tone holes and the mouthpiece made of cane. The
finger holes were burned in with a red hot metal poker. The mouthpiece has a hand carved table and curvature. The lower end of the
mouthpiece had a carved taper on the outside so it could be inserted in to the body. The reed is hand carved cane. I cannot get it
to overblow at all. It plays 1 octave in tune and 50% louder than a clarinet. The bell was a slip-on, flared, thick cardboard
tube (pyramid shaped and circular). It was made in Jamaica by an elderly gentleman whose income came from his 1 hour show for
tourists. Without seeing the show you would not believe my description of how awesome an event this was considering the
instrument. He ended the show with a 15 minute rendition of Bill Baily. The place was really rockin. What a showman and the
whole show was played on that instrument. When I offered him $10 for it he said "Sure, I'll make another for tomorrow's show".

My point being, the entire instrument except for the bell was a straight tube.

GaryT

Roger Shilcock wrote:

> Cylindrical and conical reed instruments have probably co-existed for millennia.
> For instance, East European bagpipes mostly have cyclindrical chanters, whereas
> Scottish, Irish and Galician examples have conical chanters. There are and have been other folk reed instruments of both types.
> Roger S.

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