 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Graham Golden
Date: 2001-02-19 04:18
Hi,
has anyone here had any experience with covered finger holes on soprano clarinets???
I was wondering if it affected the sound at all, or if it freed up the fingers any, or if there isn't much difference
Graham
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Author: Eoin McAuley
Date: 2001-02-19 10:43
This type of clarinet is known as a plateau model. I can't see that there would be any advantage to it, as you are going to have to exert more force to close the pads than you would just to move your fingers.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-02-19 10:46
There is more likelihood of fuzzy sounding notes, as is common on throat Bb using register key fingering. This is because fingers usually lift higher than keys, providing better venting.
Incidentally this fuzziness is also increased by using hard reeds, commonly with the 'banana' keys, A/D, side Eb/Bb, and C#G#. I suppose it is because the air vibrates more 'aggressively' in and out of the relevant tone holes.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-02-19 15:32
I have a plastic Normandy plateau-model clarinet, given to me by our local music store as unsalable due to its having a broken-off socket , lower joint, with quite a bit of key wear. I believe these were made in the 50's-60's by LeBlanc for beginning students having tone-hole-covering problems, and weren't very successful, so only a few have survived . I glued the socket piece back on, it may hold!!, got it into playing condition [not very good!] . To me, it has several poor notes which I attribute to inadequate venting below the fingered keys. I haven't spent much time on it, having higher priorities!! Do you need more info?? Don
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Author: ron b
Date: 2001-02-19 16:38
Hi, Don -
I know this is getting away from the topic. I'm interested to know what kind of glue you used to mend the socket. I have a plateau horn that I haven't had time to put into playable condition yet. It needs a little patching up first. From a cursory examination it looks like thin pads or cork pads would be the way to go with the finger hole keys. It has all regular skin pads now. The third hole and the thumb hole are open. The rest of it looks normal. It's plastic. I see, from first glance, no reason it won't play okay when it's fixed, probably suitable for a beginner with tiny fingers. I don't like the 'feel' of it - personally :|
ron b
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Author: Dee
Date: 2001-02-19 16:47
Don Berger wrote:
>
> I have a plastic Normandy plateau-model clarinet, given
> to me by our local music store as unsalable due to its having a
> broken-off socket , lower joint, with quite a bit of key wear.
> I believe these were made in the 50's-60's by LeBlanc for
> beginning students having tone-hole-covering problems, and
> weren't very successful, so only a few have survived .
Leblanc still makes the plateau style available. They have version of the Vito and there is also a professional model available wit plateau keys as a special order item.
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Author: Jo
Date: 2001-02-19 18:49
As a student model, for very beginners, would this have advantages? I know that I have some kids whose fingers are just too tiny to cover some of the holes, especially the ring finger of the right hand. Even if the sound isn't that great, it seems that there would be some merit in it. Flutes are made plateau for students as a standard now...
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-02-19 20:21
I'm sure no expert, but I'll try to answer [something] to all 3 questions. Ron I used "Plastic Model Cement" [an acrylic, but not the cyanoacrylic {super glue} ] since the body is prob. Resotone [ite?] and it seems to be holding [with TLC]. My repair expert in Tulsa used a good epoxy on an Artley [ABS resin] and it didn't take the student long to break it !! Try and see ! You are rite, Dee, my WW/BW catalog shows Vito 7214P at $479 [should have looked!] which has some description, Jo, of it's usefulness. I dont think I'd recommend it [and didn't] for a slender-fingered student, and not wanting to suggest an alto sax or an Eb or "Kinder" clarinet, just said wait a year, like with our granddaughter whose band director said she was to play percussion, and I'm going to give her a cl in the future and see what happens! Sorry to be so verbose. Don
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Author: Willie
Date: 2001-02-20 05:18
The people who make ABS products usually have a good special glue for mending purposes. However, most of the stuff we used to order had to be ordered directly from the glue manufacturer as the glue had a very, very short shelf life, rendering it useless. Example, if we had to repair the fairing or saddle bags on a Honda Goldwing or one of the Yammies, we had to buy direct from the glue manufacturer because the same stuff from the bike company would be bad from being on their shelf for over two weeks and would not hold. There are also different types of ABS plastics and this presents different problems with the glue formula. Thank the lord they don't make clarinets from thermal plastics.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-02-20 11:05
There CAN be severe strain on a tenon or socket. In my experience all glues tend to fail sooner or later on plastics in this type of tensile stress application. Either a new socket can be made and 'grafted' on, or I use glue and 7 reinforcing pins along inside the walls of the clarinet. About 30 mm long and 1.4 mm diameter. The drilling, and getting the pins glued reliably inside without air bubbles is a tricky operation - about an hour with practice. The glue stresses around these pins involve sheer forces and hold far better. I've done about 50 (tenons and sockets) without a failure, using epoxy glue.
Ont the other hand just use glue and handle carefully! There does not NEED to be much tensile stress.
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Author: Graham
Date: 2001-02-22 19:43
There are three reasons you would want to have a plateau style soprano clarinet:
1) You have really small hands and this is the only way you can cover the holes (a very common occurance on flutes for some flute players)
2) You are an old geezer/geezette that has bad arthritus and cannot cover the holes fully because your hands are in such bad condition. The plateau keys make playing possible.
3) You play clarinet in a marching band. When it's sleeting our or its 30 degrees below zero in a Santa Claus parade, it would be awful nice to have covered tone holes so you could wear gloves when you play. Normally you have to have bare hands or bare finger tips when playing in this cold weather, and your hands seize up and the frostbite is awful.
It is for Reason 3, I would love to have a plateau key soprano clarinet. (since it is for marching, either a plastic or metal one would be best)
Graham
visit: Guelph Concert Band http://www.concert-band.guelph.on.ca
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