Klarinet Archive - Posting 000403.txt from 2004/08

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Buffet RC Intonation Problem
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 17:12:59 -0400

In a message dated 8/12/2004 3:53:03 PM Central Daylight Time,
Middup@-----.com writes:

<<At the moment the only solution we can see is to get a shorter barrel for
winter use and continue to compensate. Does anyone have any experience to
indicate whether the above figures are typical for the model. They are
certainly very much wider intervals than I get on the Bb. If they are
typical, has anyone found any particular solutions which we can try. Any
advice would be much appreciated.>>

Many Buffet A clarinets (at least made in that period) have "too-wide" 12ths
in the upper joint. What that means is in practice, is that the throat tones
are flat, while the upper clarion notes, venting from the same tone holes,
are sharp.

No amount of fiddling with tone hole sizes or pad heights will fix the basic
problem. The problem is inherent in the size and shape of the bore in the
barrel and the top of the upper joint.

A shorter barrel will raise the flat notes, but will also raise the SHARP
notes. Then, try to play the Mozart Quintet with string quartet and try to tune
all the unison A's (your high C). You'll get many a nasty look from the first
violinist! Not the best solution.

It was exactly this kind of situation that got me interested in making
barrels.

It turns out, that if the bore of the upper joint of your A clarinet is not
overlarge due to extreme wear or manufacturing defect, that this "condition"
can be at least partially cured with a barrel with a rather sharp reverse
taper starting with a slightly smaller diameter. (The narrowing of the bore in
the lower half of the barrel helps to even out the 12ths, bringing the
fundamental up as well as the 12 above slightly down.)

Here, you have to balance tone with pitch accuracy. I have made a few
barrels where the pitch was perfect, but the tone was a little too constrained.
It's better to compromise a bit, keep the tone robust, but still narrow down the
12ths to something more manageable, for example a 10 cent between, say, the
thumb F and the corresponding 12th higher, Second line C.

I use such a barrel myself, as my Selmer 10 G (an R-13 clone) has that same
problem. With either of the two barrels that came with it.

You might also check to see if the bore of your upper joint is too wide.
That's a bigger problem!

I can answer more detailed questions offline, if necessary.

Walter Grabner
www.clarinetXpress.com
Clarinet mouthpieces, repairs, lessons

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org