Klarinet Archive - Posting 000400.txt from 2004/06

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Facing and intonation
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 23:17:09 -0400

OK, this will probably cause a chuckle from some of the old-timers on the
list, and especially people like Clark Fobes, who probably knew this 20 years ago
or more.

Tonight I was experimenting with a much shorter facing on bass clarinet
mouthpieces. Some new blanks came in today and they had a much shorter, shallower
beginning facing cut in them. (For those who don't know, blanks have a machine
cut facing, and in many cases are somewhat playable.)

I was having an interesting time playing on some mouthpieces on which I had
not yet finished my regular facing. What I noticed about these (almost)
mouthpieces was that they all seemed to have flat throat tones. Flat in the range of
ten cents below "in tune."

I could lip them it up to pitch, but it was a lot of effort.

When I finished the facings, and brought, in particular, the middle facing
measurements to "spec" (22 to 24, and 32 to 34) the intonation smoothed out and
the pitch came up to normal.

I knew, of course, that the mouthpiece facing affected intonation, but had
never had it so dramatically demonstrated to me.

Walter Grabner
http://www.clarinetxpress.com/
World-class clarinet, bass clarinet, and Eb mouthpieces

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