Klarinet Archive - Posting 000269.txt from 2005/08

From: "Andy Jablonski" <ajablons@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] Ah, ligatures....Gold vs. Silver
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 13:02:24 -0400

On another odd note I saw a special on this kind of medical treatment
and it was very interesting:

-----Original Message-----
From: kevin fay [mailto:kevinfay@-----.com]=20
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 9:50 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] Ah, ligatures....Gold vs. Silver

Adam Michlin posted (although I could have posted from one of many):

<<<Common sense tells us that the difference between a standard Rovner=20
ligature and a Bonade inverted ligature is more likely to cause a=20
measurable, observable, repeatable difference. Sure, no one (to my=20
knowledge) has done the research, so I remain a bit skeptical, but not=20
nearly as skeptical as I am about the difference between gold plating
and
silver plating on a ligature. Skepticism is not an absolute black or
white.
. . Luckily, science trumps both experience and opinions. Would you
really prefer to go back to a world of medicine where each doctor was
only
able to do whatever seemed to work in his or her experience, or what was
learned by listening to other doctors' anecdotal experiences? "How can
you
dismiss that leeches won't cure your patient's cancer if you haven't
even
tried it!?".>>>

Wow. Thoughts:

(1) Never thought of plating ligatures when I wrote the Definitive
Ligature
Advice. See
http://www.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/2000/03/000222.txt.
Now it's not so definitive, I see.

(2) The skeptic in me thinks there's *no way* that plating a ligature
or
keys or whatever could make a discernable difference.

. . OTOH, I've been told by several prominent players and technicians
that
it does. Hearsay anecdote is not evidence - but is disturbing when one
of
them is Yamaha's chief engineer in the U.S. At the ClarinetFest in
2001, I
played a pile of new Yamahas, some with silver-plated keys and others
that
were created in response to market demand with the nickel-silver plating
standard on R-13s. =20

Disturbingly, the two groups of horns were very consistent with each
other,
and felt different from those in the other group. (I say "felt" because
I
could discern a difference in the sound, but an observer ten feet away -
in
the form of my ever-patient oboist wife - could not). After playing
through
the pile, I was able to tell which plating the clarinet had by blowing
the
instrument blindfolded and not touching the keys. Things that make you
go
"hmmmmmm."

Was one plating "better"? Golly, no. (I bought a silver-plated VCS
because
the tech tweaked up the pads very nicely.) In any event, not a
marketable
skill.

(3) Leeches don't cure cancer. Just to prove that everything bad
becomes
good, however, leeches are apparently cutting-edge therapy for many
things.
Heck, even the *insurance companies* say it's so - I quote:

"Aetna considers medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis) therapy medically
necessary for any of the following conditions:=20

1. Poor venous drainage (venous congestion/venous outflow obstruction);
or=20
2. Salvage of vascularly compromised flaps (muscle, skin, and fat
tissue
surgically removed from one part of body to another); or=20
3. Salvage of vascularly compromised replants (limbs or other body
parts
re-attached after traumatic amputation)."

See http://www.aetna.com/cpb/data/CPBA0556.html. =20

Apparently science *likes* leeches again. Go figure.

kjf

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