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Low A is sharp

Author: Samuel
Date: 2001-02-15 01:31

Hi,

Is there any way of lowering the pitch of the low A becuase mine plays sharp?

I know that you can lower the pitch by putting one of the F# pinky keys down but that makes the tone too muddy.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Sam

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RE: Low A is sharp

Author: Ken
Date: 2001-02-15 03:35

Either lower right/left side F#s are the standard choices and on any decent student
or pro-line horn shouldn't be THAT stuffy that you can't live with it regardless how exposed or sustained the passage/note. It's certainly preferable to the right/left side C or E that really dulls tone and lowers pitch too much...a nickel+. A few more options, you can try pulling out at that bell as far as the tenon cork line, it helps the lower end "slightly" but mostly effective for low Es and break Bs (those notes are inherently sharp anyway). There's always "lipping down" but that takes practice to play in tune/keep stable and a clinic in itself. Cheers!

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RE: Low A is sharp

Author: Aaron
Date: 2001-02-15 16:12

I would also reccomend trying to lower the pitch by using the 3rd finger, ring finger, and lowering it over the G tone hole. You can lower the pitch slightly by doing this before the pitch gets too stuffy and breaks down to the G. I use this on this note from time to time, and whenever I need to adjust pitch on the go. It takes getting used to.
One thing to watch out for by extending the bell is to watch the pitch and clarity of the long B/E. Extending the bell also really does the most good for notes long C/F, F#/C# and B/E, and slightly effects D/G. The bell dosen't change the pitch much for anything above those notes.

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RE: Low A is sharp

Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-02-15 16:28

Samuel -

Sit with a tuner and check other notes that use this fingering -- clarion E and altissimo C#. If these are also sharp, a technician can put a thin layer of epoxy in the tone hole. This is a tricky adjustment, since it can also lower the pitch of Bb/F/D. Sometimes the chimney needs to be undercut into a cone shape at the bottom. Sometimes this cone needs to be tipped "north" or "south." All of this is highly skilled work, but worth it on an instrument that is really good.

Good luck.

Ken Shaw

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RE: Low A is sharp

Author: wes
Date: 2001-02-19 07:05

Hi!

Someone like Clark Fobes might be able to fix it if anyone can. It seems to me that maybe it was undercut too much in the factory. The reason I say this is that undercutting of tone holes on the clarinet or the oboe is done to raise pitch of the fundamental register with little or no effect on the upper register. The upper register can be tuned with the outer part of the tonehole chimney farthest from the bore. It is not so easy to fill excessively undercut toneholes because of limited access. It has been done by blocking the bore with something and putting epoxy in the hole and redrilling the hole when the epoxy has dried. I've seen this problem on several clarinets and found it kind of frustrating.

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