Klarinet Archive - Posting 000009.txt from 2007/05

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Non player needs advice on repair
Date: Wed, 02 May 2007 22:55:04 -0400

At 05:24 PM 5/2/2007, Karl Krelove wrote:

>Just today I became involved in a similar situation. No parts falling off an
>instrument, but a student complained that her clarinet wouldn't play without
>squeaking in the whole right hand chalumeau. I wasn't teaching the lesson
>but happened to be sitting in the room at the time doing other work. Her
>band teacher (a trumpet player who is, I guess understandably, not so quick
>about troubleshooting woodwind problems) asked me to look at it. It took
>about 15 seconds (no suction in the upper joint at all) to find that the
>adjusting screw was in too far on the throat G# key, keeping it from
>closing. A couple of turns on the screw and suddenly the suction was strong
>and the squeaks were gone. No shop time, no week's turn-around without an
>instrument. Certainly, if a band teacher doesn't have the needed practical
>working knowledge of a woodwind mechanism, he and the student are better off
>if he leaves a repair to someone who does. Some of us are not so clueless,
>though, as the single sentence in your post suggests.

It is utterly amazing how frequently this particular problem
arises. I have fixed MANY such clarinets in my travels. We recently
had an oboe in the shop that was, according to the student, "dropped"
and out of adjustment, but in fact every adjustment screw on the
whole instrument had been cranked down tight! The moral of the story
is to NEVER let a young clarinetist, flutist, or oboist have a
jeweler's screwdriver!

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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