Klarinet Archive - Posting 000060.txt from 2009/10

From: Walter Grabner <grabnerwg@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] New A clarinet from Patricola
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:53:52 -0400

Dan says:

<<What shall I do as a player if I want to "richly increase" the
high-frequency harmonics? Will wearing a hat do it, or putting on an
extra sweater?>>

Actually, you can do this by changing or altering certain equipment. A
recent client came to me with a problem with his Bb clarinet that he
had bought a few years earlier. His problem was that the clarinet had
increased in brightness to the point where it was noticeable to other
players in his orchestra. He was NOT having the same issue with his A
clarinet, so we both felt the problem was not in the mouthpiece or
reed setup. SO we focused on barrels.

Altogether I probably have 45 barrels in my shop, and we tried many of
them on this clarinet. Some helped the problem, some did not. Some
helped but altered his intonation unfavorably. We finally wound up
hand reaming a commercial barrel. (We did not change the barrel that
came with the horn, at least not as this time). The hand reamed barrel
has a nice Moennig style taper and a starting bore larger than the
original.

The result was that we kept the intonation stable and, excuse me, but
"darkened down his tone". In my listening I felt like I heard more
fundamental and more mid range harmonics and did not experience the
upper harmonics as intensely.

After his next orchestra rehearsal he let me know that the selection
had been a success and he was quite pleased.

Anyway, that is a true life anecdote on how changing or altering
equipment can change the nature of the sound produced. It would be fun
to have some scientific equipment to capture "before" and "after"
images.

I know this is anecdotal, but that is what we have right now.

Walter Grabner
www.clarinetxpress.com
Hand crafted clarinet mouthpieces

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