 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: nahya^^
Date: 2002-07-31 18:07
someone from my school said that wooden clarinets have more quality sound than plastic. but i ordered an ebonite one. i didn't know what it was so i looked up on the dictionary and it said it's some sort of hard rubber from volcanic eruption or something.
what is the differences between ebonite and wood, and is wood better than ebonite?
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2002-07-31 19:20
Ebonite is a partially-vulcanized hard rubber, the same material from which most clarinet mouthpieces are made. It's made commercially, not removed from volcanoes as far as I know (too risky....clarinet playing is dangerous enough as it is......). Hard rubber/ebonite can be a fine material for clarinet bodies -- some of my best personal instruments are made of this material. But nowadays almost all clarinet bodies are made of either wood or plastic. Rating instruments based solely on body material is impossible --- there are good, bad, and average clarinets made of all sorts of materials, including wood, plastic, hard rubber, and metal.
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Author: nahya^^
Date: 2002-07-31 19:25
well i mean the sound itself. i've heard that wooden ones make better quality sound than plastic. does ebonite make better quality sound than wood?
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Author: nahya^^
Date: 2002-07-31 19:28
oh i see what you're saying. the description was "Steuben Model 605" if it helps to answer. made in germany
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2002-07-31 21:26
Stay away from the Steuben -- it's a Chinese-made instrument with a very poor reputation (advertised by its sellers as "by German Engineering", but no reputable German, I'm sure, would want to be associated with it) --- search the Archives here for numerous discussions about good starter clarinets before you buy anything named "Steuben", "Jinyin", "Windsor", "Mirage", etc.
It's a controversial issue, but thus far I've seen no proper analytical nor carefully-controlled empirical evidence that the material ALONE of the clarinet body has a distinguishable effect on tone quality. There are many other factors that seem to have much greater effects, such as bore shape and size, tonehole placement and design, mouthpiece, reeds, ligature, etc. etc. etc. However, be aware that most of the most expensive, carefully-made, hand-finished clarinets happen to be made of wood, mainly for reasons of tradition and marketability ---- therefore it will seem statistically that wood clarinets sound better!
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-08-01 01:57
In answer to your question, a poorly designed wooden clarinet will sound much worse than a well-designed plastic one, such as Student Yamaha.
The design is more important than the material. However, top designers generally, but not always, make their instruments from timber.
The acoustic scientists mostly (all?) claim that the material is irrelevant, and EVERYTHING is in the design - that top design goes almost entirely into wooden instruments, hence explaining why wood has a reputation for better sound.
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