Klarinet Archive - Posting 000381.txt from 2009/02

From: clarni bass <clarnibass@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Clarinet Setup - Long
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:50:11 -0500

Hi

This is not my first language but I try to be clear.

>> I am not taking exception with you and certainly am not
>> coming against you personally, so please do not take offense.

But you are. That was my point re you misinterpreting me. My comments were ONLY about the ideas in your post. But instead you also became personal i.e. assumed things about me, claiming what I know, what I don't know, etc. which of course you couldn't have known, plus you were wrong in your assumptions. I just ask that you don't do this, the same as I didn't.

>> My explanation about using wax on corks never claimed that
>> it was better than any other method discussed, only offered
>> as another alternative solution. Because you do not feel it
>> has any valid benefit for cork repair is simply an opinion
>> and you are certainly entitled to have it, but that does not
>> make it fact either.

Again wrong. I never claimed this or that I feel this. This is putting words in my mouth.... Instead I ONLY raised questions that I think are worth asking for every repair suggestion. I was hoping to find answers to these questions (foir many of them I asnwered to myself in my head). I left them open so others can consider the idea, consider all questions, and then decide.

>> While it is true that CNC machines prepare the wooden blanks
>> and drill out the tone holes, all bore work and finish work
>> is done by hand on Wurlitzer clarinets.

What other companies do you know how they make the bore? The answer might surprise you if you depending on how automated you think it is. Of course this depends on what company exactly, and I know how a few do this, including one of the big companies.

>> That is why they make all of the keywork by hand.
>> Nothing is mass produced.

What does this mean anyway? Do they carve and bend the keys with hand held tools? Today there is really no advantage to making everything by hand, although I won't be surprised if it has a mystique that works on some people. There is no reason a key that is mostly machine made, with an accurate final fitting, should be less accurate than a totally hand made key. However there is a good chance it will be less expensive and easier to make this way.

I won't get into the subject of you "ruining" your clarinet with your overhaul because that is subjective and your opinion of you playing the clarinet, but what you say about key corks in general (or whoever is making those claims) is contradicting to the most basic engineering so a lot of that is wrong. Also you are referring to "synthetic cork" as just one thing (you decirbie its properties). There are many types of synthetic materials (including several that are referred to as synthetic cork) that are used on clarinets, that vary from exactly what you describe to as different as possible. For example the claim that it is noisy, it is very true for some types and completley not true for other types, etc. etc.

--- On Fri, 2/20/09, Tom.Henson@-----.com> wrote:

From: Tom.Henson@-----.com>
Subject: [kl] Clarinet Setup - Long
To: klarinet@-----.org
Date: Friday, February 20, 2009, 5:33 AM

Clarni Bass,

I am not taking exception with you and certainly am not coming against
you personally, so please do not take offense.

While your remarks seem very clear to you, some of them are not clear to
me. Here is what I think (my opinions) the issue is when trying to
discuss abstract concepts using e-mail.

Language is an imprecise form of communication. Written communication
such as e-mail is even more imprecise and this is really where things
get confused. Since I do not know you personally, I have no basis for
how to interpret what you are saying other than to try and filter it
through my own understanding. Since each person perceives things in a
unique way, this is where the impreciseness occurs. I must interpret
what you are saying based upon how I see it vs. how you see it.

Many things that are discussed on this list are based upon opinions and
this can have some heated results as we have seen. Real facts can be
few, but opinions are plentiful.

Facts vs. Opinions:

Fact - Barak Obama was recently elected President of the United States
Opinion - Any reason given as to why he was elected or why he is better
suited to the job than someone else.

Fact - Natural cork is a product of trees and thus organic in nature.
Synthetic cork is a man-made product which is not organic in nature.
Opinion - Synthetic cork is better than natural cork or natural cork is
better than synthetic cork for some applications.

Fact - Some persons have real reasons why they choose one product over
another, but it may be based upon opinion and not fact.
Opinion - These people are wrong or misinformed.

My explanation about using wax on corks never claimed that it was better
than any other method discussed, only offered as another alternative
solution. Because you do not feel it has any valid benefit for cork
repair is simply an opinion and you are certainly entitled to have it,
but that does not make it fact either.

By telling people that wax is used on tenon corks by some repair techs I
was relaying a fact, not an opinion. But I recognize also that there are
many way of repairing things and no one of them is right or wrong. Some
may be quicker than others, yes. Some may last longer than others, yes.
Some may seal better than others, yes.

I can also explain to you why Wurlitzer, for example, uses wax on their
corks and it is up to anyone else if they feel they want to try it or
not to see if there is any benefit in it for them. It is my personal
opinion that there is a reason why these people do this and there may be
some underlying benefit. But that is simply my opinion and I say so.

Why does a maker like Wurlitzer use all natural cork on their clarinets
when there are now other good options available you may ask? Are they
not up to date on the latest materials available to use? That is a good
question, but the answer may surprise you.

The first time I held a Wurlitzer clarinet in my hands, I had no
knowledge of their history. I did not understand why they made something
the way they did, that while it looked similar to my Buffet clarinets,
it did not play similar at all.

It took some time and a rather painful 2 years to come to a better
understanding of why they do things the way they do. I may not agree
with some of the way they make things, but at least I understand and can
tell you why they do things the way they do.

Wurlitzer has a different concept of keywork setup than any of the
French makers that I was familiar with. In fact, most all of the
clarinets I have owned and played on follow the French philosophy if you
can call it that. I have owned at one time or another Buffet, Selmer,
Leblanc, Rossi, Howarth and Eaton clarinets. Buffets I have owned start
at 1956 up to present day made clarinets.

Wurlitzer, on the other hand, believes that the way the keys perform has
to be designed into the very way every part of the clarinet is made and
assembled. They must fit as perfectly as humanly possible. That is why
they make all of the keywork by hand. Nothing is mass produced. The big
3 French makers rely on mass production for just about everything, but
especially all of the keys, screws, springs, pads, etc..

While it is true that CNC machines prepare the wooden blanks and drill
out the tone holes, all bore work and finish work is done by hand on
Wurlitzer clarinets. I thought at first this was simply an old fashioned
tradition of craftsmanship that they had maintained for the last 150
years. It certainly is something they are very proud about. But does
this make it better was my question. Especially given the high cost.

Imagine for a moment a clarinet where the keywork is so smooth and
responsive that it feels as if they have ball bearings. Every motion is
precise, fluid, predictable, and most of all effortless to the hands.
The screws are fit so precisely that you can take a key off, wipe off
all of the oil you can and insert it back into the key and there is no
looseness, no side play, and no drag other than the hydroscopic action
of smooth polished metal against metal. You can then hold the key by the
end of the screw and the key retains enough wall friction that the key
does not fall off the screw. Yet it still moves up and down
effortlessly. I had never seen such a thing before. Take apart most any
clarinet and try this and you will be dropping the keys all over the
floor (kids do not try this please!).

That was when I realized that I did not understand anything at all that
I thought I had when I first held it in my hands. The only experience
that I had to go by was with French clarinets and this type of
comparison simply did not seem to work with the Wurlitzer. My way of
seeing began to change the more I understood how this clarinet was made,
and what I thought were facts became nothing more than opinions.

The Wurlitzer keywork is setup up so light that I really could not play
anything evenly anymore. In addition, there were some small air leaks
and I just knew that this must be a manufacturing defect. So using all
the facts that I learned from my many years of playing on French
clarinets, I preceded to "overhaul" my Wurlitzer. I put cork pads on
the
upper joint and high quality skin pads on the lower joint. I changed out
the obviously inferior corks on the adjustment screws for Teflon and
then used some synthetic corks in other places. When I finished, it had
an air seal like crazy. Now it looked just like my Buffets.

There was one problem, it did not play well at all and now strangely
sounded just like my Buffets. I did not want it to sound like Buffets
because the sound was the main reason I bought this clarinet in the
first place. In the end, I realized I had so messed up my clarinet that
I had to send it back to Wurlitzer and pay to have them overhaul it
again and put it back the way it was. When I got it back, it played
again just the way it had before.

I was so perplexed at why my overhaul made this clarinet almost
unplayable that I spent the next 2 years not only learning to play it,
but talking to those who have first hand knowledge about these clarinets
and how they are made.

What I learned changed my whole understanding and also changed my mind
about what I thought were "facts". What I initially thought were
defects, I now realize were designed into this clarinet after 150 years
of trial and error. What I thought was simply tradition, turned out to
be a very real reason why they still make all keywork by hand.

The lightness of the springs actually is a good thing once you train
your hands to move more evenly. It was then that I realized that the
French way of using strong needles springs was more because of the
looseness inherit in their keywork and the fact that with mass
manufacturing this allows a more consistent setup feel to the average
players. Yes, it does make for stronger hands. But how even you play the
keywork of a clarinet is really not related that much to how strong your
fingers are, but how evenly and precise they move. This is my opinion
and conclusion. Now that I am accustomed to this lightness of motion, I
now can play fast passages faster and smoother that I ever could on my
Buffets with must less hand fatigue. Now I realize why Wurlitzer has
made the keywork the way they do.

Understanding the air leaks took me a little longer to grasp. It was
when I was talking with Morrie Backun that he said something that was
basically the same thing Wurlitzer told me about the small air leaks.
Morrie said that he had worked with a well known player (Principal for
major US orchestra) that had asked him to deliberately induce small air
leaks into their clarinet. When I told him that Wurlitzer also does
something similar in the pad setup, he confirmed that it can help
balance the bore resistance and actually make the nodal transitions
smoother. In other words, done correctly, it can smooth out the note to
note transitions. That's when the light bulb went off in my head and I
really began to have much more respect for something that I had not
understood.

Why does Wurlitzer use only natural cork? Natural cork, assuming that it
is of the highest quality, has that wonderful resilience and ability to
spring back. I agree that some good synthetic corks also has this
ability, but what makes them favor natural cork over synthetic?

The surprising answer is because of it's natural ability to compress. As
natural cork weakens, it will compress and take on the shape of the keys
that come in contact with it. A synthetic cork, while lasting much, much
longer, is more consistent in the way it reacts to the key contact, over
and over again. But it really does not break in the same way that
natural cork does.

In addition, synthetic cork can also be louder. By the time you have a
cork durable enough for the key contact, it may be hard enough to start
to make noise. Natural cork not only has the ability to spring back, but
it also acts as a noise insulator at the same time. Yes, it still makes
noise, but generally not as much as the same hardness synthetic cork.

Getting back to the fact that natural cork compresses over time faster
than synthetic cork, this is exactly the reason why Wurlitzer still uses
it. They believe that the keywork on a clarinet should be perfectly
balanced. All motion should feel the same, all resistance, and up down
travel the same. The keywork should never feel that it is unbalanced or
stressed from springs and rebound pressure that is uneven. Natural cork
has the ability to "break in" so that the keywork settles in and the
end
result is keywork that is perfectly balanced under your hands. Wurlitzer
also told me to never let anyone else play on my clarinet for an
extended period of time because of this very same reason. They keywork
actually breaks in just for your hands and will not respond the same
when using different hands after it is broken in.

This balance allows you to take all tension out of your fingers and
hands to a very great degree and then it is simply amazing just how fast
your fingers can go when they are not working against stiff and
unbalanced springs.

So now you know why they use all natural cork instead of using some of
the latest high tech materials. I apologize for such a long post, but
some things can not be explained with just a few words and sentences.
Learning is a process after all.

Tom Henson

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