Klarinet Archive - Posting 000163.txt from 2007/09

From: "Kevin Fay" <kevin.fay.home@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Blown out clarinets
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:18:04 -0400

Fred Jacobowitz posted

<<<I repeat my offer. Come and play it! Once again, I'll say it: don't
pooh-pooh something just because you haven't experienced it - especially
when a host of reputable players have. No it isn't an urban legend or wives'
tale. Go ahead and try to explain sight to a person who has been blind from
birth. They don't really believe that other people are not like them until
they experience others. Men used to belittle women who had PMS (except those
married to them, of course). ;-) It took women decades to get doctors to
accept the idea. Is that an urban legend?>>>

Fred, I'd be happy to toot your horn. It's not worth it to me to get on an
airplane, but if you'll send it to me I can take it to a repair person or
two to evaluate the apparently mystical phenomenon.

Your analogy to physical illnesses is emotionally pure but, in the end,
false. I will never experience PMS, but my wife certainly does (and in the
end, due to her desire to share misery, I suppose I "feel" it too).

"Blowout" is not an illness or a disability, however. A clarinet does not
feel pain, experience emotions, or contemplate sight. It's only a wooden
tube that you blow through to make noise. A tube cannot mystically change
its shape - if the intonation or response sucks, there must be a *physical*
change in dimension or condition.

We've gone 'round and 'round on the list about what physical changes there
could possibly be. Pet theories abound.

> Is the wood smoothed out by repeated swabbing? I would believe this if
you swabbed with coarse sandpaper - but mpingo is a very tough wood that
eats machine tools, so I doubt that a zillion swabs with cotton or silk
could do anything of the sort. In any event, this could certainly be
measured by a good repair tech who could tell us if the dimensions have been
altered.

Another issue is if the wood is actually "smoothed" - polished to be less
porous. This could brighten the tone a bit, I suppose, but probably not any
more than a plastic clarinet already is out of the box. Since Greenlines
are plenty smooth inside and can be made to sound plenty good, even if
possible I question if this is really a bad thing.

> Is the bore warped? This is a definite possibility. My wife's Laubin
English horn is visibly banana-shaped. I'm told that this can be fixed by
hydration in a sealed container as part of an overhaul. Since the
intonation is fine and the sound glorious, she doesn't have a good reason to
have this done though. Some of the keys were binding because of the twisted
posts, but some decent repair work fixed that.

You can also have a bore re-reamed to be put in better shape. At the recent
ClarinetFest in Vancouver, Francois Kloc took my Eb, tweaked the throat of
the center joint and just about instantly made the flat altissimo in tune.
(Note however that this was a chronic condition of the little beastie since
new, not a change in the horn.) Again, once analyzed physical changes can
usually be fixed.

> Is there smutz in the tone holes? I'll be there is. This will make the
instrument play sharp. Since the holes nearest the mouthpiece likely get
more saliva/calcium/bologna than those lower down, this could explain why it
would be progressively sharp as you go up the scale.

> Do you have leaky pads, or funky pad heights? All of this can come from
age and use - and can be fixed.

What I don't buy is that there is some sort of non-physical or otherwise
unknown affliction at work. Again, it's just a tube of known dimension; any
change can be measured. Until someone with accurate gauges actually
measures a dimensional change that can't be repaired, color me skeptical.

kjf

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