Klarinet Archive - Posting 000401.txt from 2009/02

From: "Keith" <bowenk@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Clarinet Setup - Long
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:44:07 -0500

Forest

>PS...did I say that Keith B really, really plays his German reform
clarinets well?

No, but you can keep on saying it!!!! And of course you are amazing on your
Buffets. And I know we each are aiming for the sort of sound that is easier
to produce on the instruments we have respectively picked. Not all gorgeous
sounds are the same. And yes, I earned the money for them in
science/engineering not in music, but it is true as Tom says that it's a
different story in Germany and the Netherlands.

I find myself agreeing in part with both you and Tom. I've played many of
Forest's many Buffets and they are truly fine instruments - of course, he is
also a high-grade tech and has set them all up beautifully. I suspect that
the oft-repeated fetish for trying dozens of clarinets and picking one out
would be greatly reduced if they were all set up to the same standard on
leaving the factory. Custom makers have to do this; it's part of what you
pay for. I do my own maintenance and some for others, and rarely cannot
improve an instrument by regulation. Even Wurlitzers and Steve Foxes don't
stay statically perfect.

On the issue of hand made versus mass produced, there is a famous story in
engineering circles. When, during WWII, Churchill wanted the production of
Rolls-Royce Merlin engines for Spitfires increased, he forced Rolls-Royce to
sit down with Ford to talk about mass production. Somewhat grudgingly they
complied. After the Ford engineers had studied the Merlin designs they
announced: 'Gentlemen, you cannot undertake mass production with such sloppy
tolerances'.

Yes, one can produce lower (better) tolerances by machine manufacture, but
mass production of an *assembly* (such as fitting key rods onto posts with
no adjustment in assembly) *requires* this. Hand crafting is a cost
effective way of attaining the best fits, if large volume is not required.
Yes, I could design a system that manufactured and robotically assembled
clarinets to Wurlitzer precision, but I am sure the investment needed would
make the clarinets far more expensive in the volumes concerned. You'd need
to produce millions or tens of millions a year, not thousands. OTOH mass
production methods for less high precision are much cheaper than hand
methods.

Concerning blueing of springs, you are both right. Blueing can be primarily
a decorative and anti-corrosion process, done by working oil into the
surface of steel when hot. Spring steel is high-carbon steel; this is
greatly strengthened by heating it to red heat (to dissolve the carbon in
the ferritic phase) then quenching it in water, changing the structure to
so-called martensite. The latter is brittle, but is made less brittle
(tougher, less liable to crack) by mild heating - this is tempering. Oil
quenching can combine the quench/tempering and blueing stages; or they can
still be separate, depending on the manufacturer's preference.

No heat treatment can alter the stiffness of the springs, merely extend the
range of the elastic behavior to higher deflections. I don't believe any
fancy shaping or bending of the springs can alter the relative stiffness in
extension and return, either; elasticity is (to second order) a linear,
reversible process. This is retained in assemblies unless you get buckling
or bistable structures, which are not found in clarinet springs.

The discussion has only touched on the fingering and acoustic differences in
the Schmidt Reform Boehm system. I agree with Tom that there are substantial
advantages in this system (and cite the amazing player Luigi Magistrelli in
support). Besides the forked Eb/Bb (yeah!) the venting and tuning is
certainly better, due to the use of doubled tone holes as far as possible,
which allows more independent adjustment of venting and tuning. This
simplifies the fingering and adjustments slightly but significantly. A
distinguished player of Toscas recently told me to use the fork clarion F#
rather then R2 to improve the tone/intonation of this note. On a regular
Boehm this is true, and used to be my practice; on a reform Boehm it is not.
As a result there are a number of problems that I used to have to practice
to overcome on a Boehm, which are simply absent on the reform Boehm. I can
spend the time practicing scales or music instead :-).

Keith Bowen

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature
database 3875 (20090220) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com

------------------------------------------------------------------
The 2009 Woodwind.Org Donation Drive is going on right now - see
https://secure.donax-us.com/donation/ for more information.
------------------------------------------------------------------