 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: diz
Date: 2003-10-16 01:34
I was having an interesting discussion with a colleague in Ontario about the "pros and cons" of wood used in the manufacture of contrabass clarinets (hence the popularity of the lovely paperclips). One thing I realised is that the bigger the piece of wood used the more susceptible to cracking. Indeed, true of any musical instrument made using grenadilla (it would seem).
I'm not sure exactly what wood is used in the manufacture of contrabassoons (they appear to be "French Polished") and is it able to be used in clarinets or other smaller cousins?
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2003-10-16 02:22
I wonder if "French Polishing" refers to burnishing the bore with a mild sandpaper and kerosene? I heard this referred to as a method to seal the bore with the slurry of sawdust and solvent to leave a mirror finish.
This was done at the lathe with a long rod holding the flap of very fine paper. The section would be moved briskly along the long axis of the lathe as it turned.
Much of the feel involved was apparently in another sense, the sense of smell... the operator could detect the polymerization of the loose grenadilla dust and solvent as the odor changed.
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-10-16 03:34
Conrabassoons are generally made of Maple which is softer and lighter than grenadilla and on the whole less susceptible to cracking along the grain. If you made a contra clarinet out of grenadillas you would never be able to lift it. Also with maple you tend to get more long lengths of useable wood for instrument manufacture. The lengths used in instrument manufacture are cut to size and dressed before seasoning into pieces called billets. The largest size of these with grenadilla are usually only a bit longer than the lower joint of a wooden bass clari. The majority of billets are in fact shorter which is why bass clarinets are proportionately more expensive, ie. material costs. It would be possible to make contra clarinets out of another wood such as maple, fruitwood or European boxwood but the makers seem to have come up with metal as the best option, contrabassoons are made using metal sections also especially 'gentlemans' bore models.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-10-16 12:29
I'm thinking that "french polishing" is something else like hand burnishing with a pad and some media....but can't come up with the specifics.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-10-16 12:35
Yeh, French Polish is a method of finishing the exterior of musical instruments using cotton pad and shellac with denatured alcohol....and a lot of had rubbing and experience.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2003-10-16 14:08
It was used traditionally used extensively for high quality furniture. Either simple oil treatments, or other more robust polishes are now the norm for furniture. French polish is softened by alcohol.
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Author: Alseg
Date: 2003-10-16 16:48
Gordon is correct. French Polishing is a complex and a time-honored furniture techniqe used by custom woodcrafters. It has its admirers as well as detractors. Shellac can be obtained in flake or premixed form, and is dissolved in denatured alcohol (NOT rubbing or drinking alcohol).
There is danger of toxicity with this alcohol.
Shellac is useful in closing the grain of softer woods, including cocobola.
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Author: javier garcia m
Date: 2003-10-17 17:10
AFAIK, rosewood (or violet wood) is used for clarinets contrabass instead of grenadilla.
Buffet makes the EEb contrabass out of grenadilla. It doesn't make BBb contrabass.
Selmer makes its contrabass models (both EEB and BBb) out of rosewood.
Ripamonti also makes its contrabass models with rosewood.
Some Bb soprano clarinets are made of rosewood (Rossi, patricola, Leblanc, among others).
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Author: diz
Date: 2003-10-20 01:48
javier garcia - just had a look at "Ripamonti's" website ... their contrabass clarinet is rather ugly to my eye ... also very expensive (about AU$27K). They sell one of those silly A-flat piccolo clarinets (how the heck a big chap with big fingers would get his fingers around the keywork is a bit of a mystery). This is not a brand I'm familiar with but they look like nicely made instruments ... I'd have to see one in action to workout just how good they are.
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-10-20 03:05
The majority of modern bassoons contra or otherwise are just lacquered and definitely not French polished. I have seen some older Heckel's where the finish is shellac, various colours but most commonly red or gold, and clear lacquer. It has, or according to an eminent local physicist specialising in musical accoustics whose website has been cited on this board many times, or should have NO effect on the accoustical properties of the instrument. It is for cosmetic or protectice reasons. The tiger stripes on most bassoons are put on with heated mesh and are purely for wank value. Another reason for metal contra clari's maybe to do with the tone hole size and stability and leverage on the posts.
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Author: diz
Date: 2003-10-20 04:17
LOL @ wank value (gotta love aussie venacular).
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