 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2004-03-23 16:22
My 1968 Selmer 33 has had work done as suggested by a person reputed to be a good woodwind tech. It now plays beautifully throughout the range, but I would welcome some observations about the register key from those with more experience.
There are several rods and fulcrums between the thumb key and the pad that opens on the arch of the neck. Of course some amount of backlash is introduced by each transfer of motion, but in this case the number of pieces results in an appreciable amount of slack.
I don't have the horn in front of me, but I might have to depress the thumb key about 1 to 1.5 mm. before motion begins at the pad on the neck. The main culprit is the point where a pivot pin is housed in a cylindrical opening - you can see it work to and fro as you push and release the register key.
I asked the tech if there is a replaceable wear part there, e.g. a bushing. He said no (though he could probably fashion something), but I gather that the linkage passed muster by the standard he applied to this instrument, which is why he didn't do anything about it.
Do I really want a hair-trigger register key? It 's tempting to optimize this action because it's involved in fingering sequences that can be hard to do quickly. But on the other hand that's a busy area, and grazing a touchy register key could result in a lot of spoiled low notes.
thanks in advance
John Morton
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2004-03-23 21:10
There should be just the slightest bit of overall play in the mechanism (through all the various pieces) ---- just enough to prevent inadvertent lifting and to accommodate cork and pad compression over time, and temperature effects --- but that's not a whole lot of slop. Probably your tech could have done a bit better job.
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