 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2006-01-19 21:19
I getting used to the contrabass I recently took up. I discovered that one source of my squeaking was a leak that I fixed by adjusting a screw.
My question is this: When I play my bass, I can get as soft as I like with no problem. With the contra, at least on some notes, when I get down to a certain softness, it jumps up to the corresponding note in the higher register. What can I do to correct this? Could it be because there is still a bit of a leak? Do I need a harder or softer reed?
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-01-19 21:34
Don -
99 to 1 it's a leak. Clarinets play without effort in the low register and take an adjustment to jump up -- just the opposite of, say, saxophone.
Look at the register key mechanism and all the pads high on the instrument. There could be a nick on either the pad or the surface on which it seats.
Other possibilities:
-- a leak underneath the reed (flatten the bottom and screw the ligature tight, then back off 1/4 turn)
-- a leak around the mouthpiece tenon cork, or where the neck fits into the body
-- on a wood or plastic or even a metal instrument, a crack in the body material
-- on a metal instrument, a soldered seam can crack open
-- where a tone hole chimney meets the body
-- where two sections meet
-- where there is any change in the outer dimension (for example, where the mouthpiece socket meets the neck)
-- where anything is soldered to the body
-- where the metal is curved (for example, on the neck)
One place particularly likely to crack is the socket at the top of the upper joint. If you put downward pressure on the mouthpiece as you play (which you shouldn't), that force gets multiplied many times by the length and angle of the neck.
Look down the bore to see whether anything is protruding into the bore -- a screw, for example. That creates a leak through the body.
Good luck. Let us know what you find.
Ken Shaw
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