 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Stephen Froehlich
Date: 2001-05-21 13:49
OK, so I'm primarily a bass clarinet player, therefore this is just idle curiosity, but...
What is the purpose of the finned metal barrels you can get for Bb (A, etc.) clarinet? I know that in many ways they're just standard replacement barrels with all of the variations of length and bore that go into barrel selection, and I get the feeling that metal is somewhat easier to precision machine, etc. However, why fins? Are they heat sinks so that the barrel is always at the ambient temperature? Are they some kind of resonator or damper? In other words, what's the point of machining the fins/grooves in the barrel?
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2001-05-21 14:55
Supposedly the fins are to improve heat transfer to speed temperature equalization between the barrel and the environment. I think it's a bunch of marketing hoo-ha to get frustrated Harley rider wannabes to buy the barrels. I'm sure at least one person reading this will be seriously offended by my opinion. I'm looking forward to the response(s).
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-05-21 19:35
Dave, This engineer agrees and thanks you for speaking out. The HYPE is much too great. Don
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Author: Stephen Froehlich
Date: 2001-05-21 19:54
OK, wait. Let me see if I've got this.....
The barrel is <em>at thermal equlibirum</em> (most of the time) when you assmeble your horn. It only goes out of equlibirum with the surrounding air when you start blowing hot air through it. I guess the idea is then to get it back into equlibirum as quickly as possible after you stop blowing?
As long as the temperature is stable after warming up, shouldn't everything be hunkey dorey? Moreover, isn't the point to warm up the whole horn so that the air column remains at its warm temperature throughout its length because the dominant effect of temparature on tuning is the speed of sound in the <em>air column</em>?
Therefore, I guess the idea is to cool the air column down as close to ambient temperature as possible by making the barrel a good heat sink? I have always found that my internal 98.6 F internal temperature is somewhat more stable than the environment I play in.
Hey, Dave, have you considered selling a service to modify bass clarinet necks by soldering on large heat sinks? If you do, you might also want a self-activating spit valve (with drain hose) as all of the condensation will be in the neck.
I am glad to at least know that I'm not the only one that has both a) had a thermodynamics class and b) doesn't understand why they do this heat exchange bit with barrels.
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Author: Anji
Date: 2001-05-21 22:16
I got one for those cold Winter mornings, when the horn won't turn over.
The nice thing about the All-yoo-minium barrels is the constant socket dimension.
I carry it with a beater mouthpiece and Legere reed to test out Garage sale finds.
Sounds pretty good on my otherwise wild Conn 444N.
Oh yeah, with the wind blowing through the fins, I don't overheat playing Rimsky-Korsikov. Next week, I'll be treating the bore with Castrol Syntech! The notes should just fly out, then.
anji
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Author: willie
Date: 2001-05-22 05:12
Hey I put finned rocker caps on my old Triumphs and they did cool the oil a bit and they look neat too!
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Author: Anji
Date: 2001-05-22 13:36
Which end of the Triumph do you blow through?
Does Mozart sound better through a 'Thumper' or multiple cylinders?
If you ride fast enough, your harmonica should sound incredible.
(After Steven Wright).
anji
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2001-05-22 16:02
Stephen,
I'll take all your bass clarinet neck ideas under advisement. If I make a fortune selling them, do I have to split the profits with you?
Unrelated side note (which I'm including because I just thought of it and it was funny): A person who fairly recently tried out a bass clarinet I had for sale complained that the angle of the neck was wrong, because it caused saliva to collect in the bottom! I was wondering if they had mentioned the concept of "gravity" wherever this person went to school......
Perhaps I'll develop a complete clarinet "automatic climate control system", based on NASA astronaut EVA suit technology, to control temperature and humidity of the entire instrument. Shouldn't weigh more than 50 pounds or cost more than $50,000, I'd venture to guess.....Much more prestigious than a silly little barrel with fins on it.
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Author: Ginny
Date: 2001-05-22 17:21
Perhaps you should consider comedy as a second career!
I am so often amused by your turn of mind and phrase.
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Author: Stephen Froehlich
Date: 2001-05-22 19:50
This sounds like a perfect application for <a href="http://www.swales.com/products/heatpipe.html">heat pipe</a> technology.
Coil a heat pipe around the aluminum neck or barrel, use it to transmit the heat to a thermoelectric cooling unit under your chair. This way, you can cool the air to -40. Never mind the ice build up (no need to drain it), the air moving through the wooden part of the horn will be bone dry.
Perhaps someone could come up with a way to attach heat packs to aluminum barrels/necks for those frozen, late season marching events.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-05-23 13:05
Yes, this barrel would serve to cool the bore air in a cold room, and heat it in a warm room.
If (and that is controversial) vibration of the material surface is significant in sound emanation then a larger surface would emanate more energy, i.e. more volume. A professional player acquantance thjought this was definietly the case in her playing, but when she listened to a recording she decided the fins made no difference, so perhaps the fins project more sound in the direction of the players ears but no more volume overall, hence no difference for the audience. She did not want the ILLUSION that she was playing louder so she stopped using it. Many were bought once. There are distinct fashions in clarinet paraphenalia. Some vanish again as quickly as clothing fashions, leaving a rich marketer. Others seem to linger on account of some merit of more substance. A few decades ago any clarinetist who was anybody here was playing on a crystal mouthpiece. Now I know of only 2 players (out of a thousand or two) who still do.
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