Klarinet Archive - Posting 000556.txt from 2003/04

From: Richard Bush <rbushidioglot@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Different sorts of authority, and the 'barrell'.
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:38:12 -0400

Your clarinet must be different than mine, Bill. My register/Bb key is
sprung with a leaf or flat spring.

On Wednesday, April 16, 2003, at 11:41 AM, B. Rite wrote:

> <><> Tony Pay wrote:
> My complaint against you was that for almost a year, you *didn't* try
> the experiment, yet nevertheless continued every now and then to post
> nonsense about it.
>
>
>
> I appreciate what you're saying, Tony. I also remember how you
> encouraged me to be 'courageous' and to clean my own register tube. I
> accepted the 'challenge', and I even bought my own spring hook to do
> the
> job.
>
> I definitely don't harbor a grudge. But just so you understand my
> view
> of the issue:
>
>
>
> I **have** been trying for over 12 months now to purchase a barrel made
> to certain specifications. Nobody was willing to make it for me, and
> finally I gave up. My thought was that anything I made myself without
> a lathe & reaming tools wouldn't have much chance of success. But I
> have **NOT** wasted those 12 months yapping here on Klarinet without
> trying to obtains materials for an actual experiment.
>
> As you and I have already discussed, finding an object such as film
> cannister or piece of pipe or whatever seemed like a dead end to me for
> practical reasons. But I was **NOT** just sitting back on my rear end
> and yapping.
>
> If it matters to you, I actually paid for one barrel that I never
> received. I and the craftsman have agreed on doing something else
> instead, and therefore I don't feel wronged. I will end up with
> something that I've wanted for a while.
>
> ....but when it became obvious just a couple of weeks ago that my
> 'weird' barrel was never going to arrive, and when Walter declined to
> make a 'blank' for me, it only took me 2 weeks to obtain a blank by
> other means; and since the day that I received it, I've done a number
> of
> experiments based on the fortunate coincidence of seeing the duduk
> performer's clarinet barrel, which contained curves.
>
> Some of the last few days have been spent learning how to handle and
> shape and place the filler material. I won't bore the list with a
> diary of my attempts. But I will say.....
>
>
>
> I finally made one barrel that plays the entire chromatic scale within
> ten cents or less. Ten cents isn't close enough for a performance,
> of
> course. But keep in mind that I'm shaping filler by hand, pressing it
> into place with my fingers, and there's no way to polish it afterwards.
>
> More important than playing an approximate chromatic scale is the fact
> that the sound changes in the direction that I want, even up into the
> lower altissimo. In other words, I believe that I'm on the right
> track.
>
> It happened that the filler fell apart (mostly through my own
> carelessness) a few hours after I made this barrel. I was able to
> start fresh and repeat the experiment with similar results. So my
> 'design' has at least some basic tendency to stabilize at a sound that
> I
> want.
>
>
>
> <><> Cylinders often do. What do you mean?
>
> We've spoken before of a bore being mostly a cylinder even though its
> diameter varies along its length. "Polycylindrical" is a common name
> for this. To my naked eye, a sweeping curve reversed its direction in
> two places (not just one place).
>
> Cheers,
> Bill
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Klarinet is supported by Woodwind.Org, http://www.woodwind.org/
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is supported by Woodwind.Org, http://www.woodwind.org/