 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2024-01-26 21:12
We can all agree that water is a byproduct of human respiration. That's a scientific given.
What I'm interested in is something a repair tech told me once, that I regret listening to with half an ear, about the application of--I think it was bore oil--inside particularly the top joint--that can aid in channeling this moisture away from the right hand upper joint trill key tone holes and perhaps especially the left pinky C#/G# key, which gravity tends to favor in moisture buildup.
Does anyone have a time tested method of not eliminating, but perhaps rechanneling respiratory moisture away from tone holes short of drying out the instrument, dabbing these problematic tone holes with an absorbent pad, or "playing the instrument upside down while our legs are suspended from the monkey bars" (my personal favorite.) 
TIA
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Author: stevesklar
Date: 2024-01-26 23:14
there's been methods such as using a long Q-tip and drawing a line down the bottom of the bore to help water escape quicker. Also using the Qtip to put boreoil around those problematic toneholes.
But that does not help condensation itself, which of course, encompasses the entire circumference of the bore as it builds up.
If you keep your bore well oiled, water will fall down much quicker than if the bore is dry and you wouldn't have to use the Qtip method. But there's really nothing that one can do about condensation from one's breath.
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Stephen Sklar
My YouTube Channel of Clarinet Information
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2024-01-27 09:36
I feel compelled to mention "Ultra Ever Dry" again since we bring up the age old problem of condensation.
Ultimately the real issue is that water itself has a natural property known as "adhesion" - it tends to stick to stuff. So instead of just pouring out the open tone hole, moisture will stick to both the top of the tone hole and the pad. As you open the key, the tone hole remains "closed" by water adhering to both the tone hole and the pad causing the "delay" of note change or gurgle until the air clears the way.
If there were only some way we could make the surface of the pad (or tone hole, or both) hydrophobic [edited per advice of following post] (water hating.....incapable of allowing water to stick to the surface) the problem would NOT exist.
This is the sort of "techy advancement" we need for woodwinds in this age of miraculous materials and new age technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTkefJHfC0
C'mon...........somebody try it (it's expensive) !!!!
jdbaseplayer? clarnibass?
.................Paul Aviles
Post Edited (2024-01-27 22:15)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2024-01-27 22:14
Yes so sorry......silly error in my part.
Let's not let the boo-boo derail the idea.
Why I put $400 into a ligature and not $300 into the two quart containers of Ultra-Ever Dry is that then I have two quarts of Ultra-Ever Dry. There would be no way under the sun any one clarinet player needs this much "stuff."
HOWEVER
If this works, then there is no reason a repair shop shouldn't be applying this to the pads of every clarinet's side key pads and sliver key pads (as a minimum) that comes through the shop.
Any reason why NOT???????
[After some research on this product I see problems: It needs to be sprayed on; the coating wears/washes off; still expensive...$250 for 1quart of bottom coat and 1 quart of top coat. Still there may be a hydroPHOBIC material that can be used as a synthetic cork for key cups........hope's spring is eternal]
...........Paul Aviles
Post Edited (2024-01-31 15:50)
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2024-01-28 00:05
No, of course Paul, let's consider such hydrophobic application.
For me the issue is whether such an application can divert moisture away from the tiny "sump pit" formed inside the bore where, for example, the drilled out G#/C# key's tone hole meets the recessed pad that covers it.
In your linked video I would have been curious to see the effect on piece of paper of creating lines of hydrophobic application rather than application of the product on their entire sheet.
Might such lines, or channels of application if you will, divert moisture into the channels formed by the absence of such application, even, to a small extent overcoming gravity's tendency to want to take the shortest trip to the ground?
We do have "in our court" the fact that this G#/C# tone hole sits somewhere offset from being directly on the bottom of the instrument, like the register key.
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Author: Julian ibiza
Date: 2024-01-28 00:24
I can see that the idea of applying a line of bore oil in the bottom of the upper joint might just work if you were to add diagonally sloping tributaries up the sides in advance of the flooding tone holes ( like a fish bone with its tail rewards the mouthpiece). In theory moisture moving down the bore will tend to flow down these droplet forming tributaries to join the lower pathway( if the tributaries are angled enough ),like traffic merging onto the highway. Probably hard to paint in there .... but it might be an interesting experiment.
Julian Griffiths
Tel. 34 696 798 853
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2024-01-28 00:53
If you drill a 14mm diameter hole on the underside of the top joint between the top joint tenon shoulder and the speaker tube, then the water can run straight out of that instead of down the bore of the clarinet.
Hang a plastic bottle just below it to collect the drippage unless you want a wet patch on your lap looking like you've just peed yourself, although that's not always a good look.
You're welcome.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2024-01-28 01:02)
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