 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2021-12-26 11:46
I've read quite a bit about drilling a hole in the bell wall to bring up the low notes, but I've not come across anything that indicates what the placement and diameter should be. I have a couple of spare bells to experiment with but before I start vandalising a perfectly good bell could anybody give me any pointers as to how to set about this?
Tony F.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2021-12-26 15:28
Funny story.
Back in high school, they had an A clarinet that I used for orchestra that was really quite flat on the low notes. To accommodate playability I took a pair of scissors to the bell, just using one pointy end, and began rotating (at a point around two thirds of the way up from the bottom) until I achieved a hole about a quarter inch in diameter. The band master was livid and made me pay for a replacement. The tech who saw my work said the hole was not high enough or large enough to work properly, but it did raise the pitch some.
................Paul Aviles
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Author: LFabian
Date: 2021-12-26 17:51
BeHn sells an ABS bell with a hole less than 1/16, a and 3/16 from the rimless top of barrel. Sounds fine. Replaced a thick walled bell.
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Author: Djudy
Date: 2021-12-27 14:28
Not a Bb but for info :
My 2002 Selmer alto was factory-modified by the first owner with a large opening in the bell , 1.65cm dia. on the right side of the rising part of the curve at the height of the lowest tenon. The lowest notes are well in tune and I tune better overall than the rest of the clarinet section in the concert band.
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Author: vintschevski
Date: 2021-12-28 05:44
Tony, this thread might be useful:
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=342361&t=342350
Here is part of one of David Spiegelthal's comments in that thread:
"I've found that the bell hole has a much greater effect (more than twice) on the pitch of the low chalumeau E/F than on the corresponding upper 12ths (low clarion B/C). This observation is borne out by the discussion of "tonehole correction length" in Arthur Benade's book on musical instrument acoustics.
Roughly, the hole is about 1/4" in diameter and located about 1-1/2 to 2 inches from the tenon end of the bell (just slightly below the lower end of the tenon socket). Clocking around the bell makes no difference; I always put the hole on the bottom side opposite the bell logo just to make it less obvious. If you want to get fancy, it probably helps a bit to flare both the interior and exterior of the hole (i.e. making the hole slightly hourglass-shaped) using a Dremel and/or countersink tool."
But there are further details worth checking out in that thread as above.
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Author: donald
Date: 2021-12-28 12:21
A few players I know working in Europe have put a hole through the neck of the bell and the cork of the bell tenon. This way, if you know you need to sharpen a really prominent low F or E you can turn it so the hole is open (in bars rest etc)... however if you don't need/want that hole open you turn the bell so the two holes don't line up.
Not as good as having a key to open or close it, but simple and still gives you some extra options.
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Author: Jarmo Hyvakko
Date: 2021-12-28 17:32
I have a self made tone hole in my backun traditional bells 41 mm below the top of the bell. The diameter is 5 mm. It sharpens more the notes e/b than f/c. That is good at least with buffet fc prestige, where the low clarinet register c tends yo be sharp in comparison with b
Jarmo Hyvakko, Principal Clarinet, Tampere Philharmonic, Finland
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Author: Ebclarinet1
Date: 2021-12-31 22:38
The Fobes Eb clarinet extension essentially does that "hole in the bell" thing and allow for great intonation throughout the range, although more noticeable in the E/F and B/C. When my local tech was playing my horn he commented that "why hasn't someone done this for Bb clarinet?". Good question! Of course the Tosca Bb does have the alternate C key that fixes that note.
Buffet's alto and bass clarinets have the hole on the bell and this really helps the long B sound and intonation.
Eefer guy
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Author: Mojo
Date: 2022-01-01 17:35
I shortened a Backun bell for a friend once by drilling the socket deeper and trimming some wood off the top. Drilling a hole would have been easier and better but I did not know about it at the time. The hole can be plugged to reverse the alteration too.
MojoMP.com
Mojo Mouthpiece Work LLC
MojoMouthpieceWork@yahoo.com
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