Klarinet Archive - Posting 000087.txt from 2012/01

From: Tim Roberts <timr@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Barrels
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:58:44 -0500

Martin Marks <martymarks511@-----.com>
> Buffet claims that their wooden clarinets are up to pitch in 4
> minutes. With a short barrel your clarinet can be up to pitch
> immediately, How short can be determined immediately with a tuner.
> This isn't like rocket science.

It is, however, an awful lot like superstition. There's a lot to be
careful about here. The clarinet is not changing in length or diameter
as it warms up (at least not significantly -- it would take a full
millimeter extension to make a "just noticeable difference" of 5c in
tuning). The pitch difference is caused by the change in the speed of
sound through air inside the horn as the temperature and humidity
changes, which is surprisingly variable.

What that means is that your results are going to be radically different
depending on where you are in the world, inside or outside, ambient
temperature, relative humidity, etc.

The temperature of the clarinet does, of course, have some effect on the
temperature of the inside air column, but my intuition says it's much
less than is being implied here. I can certainly accept that the air
column takes time to stabilize, but as an engineer and a natural
skeptic, I have a VERY hard time with the "20 minute" claim.

--
Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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