 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: jenna
Date: 2002-02-04 00:33
This may have been beaten to death, but..
Tonight I decided to pull out the old metal clarinet I bought over the summer to see about starting to work on it and clean it up. I figure it will make a nice practice tool to learn how to do some repair work, and if I have a big problem, I can always call a friend of mine that does it for a living.
To the point at hand..
I hear everyone discuss tuning barrels in conjunction with metal clarinets. My metal is one piece (as I assume most are), with an attachment that joins the clarinet with a mouthpiece. Is this the fabled "tuning barrel," or is it just another attachment? How does that whole thing work? From what I've read in searches some metal clarinets came with no barrel at all; the mouthpiece fit directly into the clarinet. So what do I have?
BTW.. the clarinet is an American Beauty USA, if that helps. With a serial of K3XXX.
Thanks
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Author: willie
Date: 2002-02-04 02:59
The barrel on a metal clarinet looks kinda like a cheap sheet metal mouthpiece for a trumpet. You tune it the same way you do a wooden one by simply pulling out or pushing in. Some metal barrels had "tuning" barrels that had a threaded portion that could be "fine" tuned by twisting. Like unscrewing a light bulb.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2002-02-04 15:58
Jenna, As far as I know, Harry Bettoney is the only maker of metal cls who supplied an "adjustable tuning barrel" as Willie described, prob. for two reasons. No 1, the drawing on his patent US 1,705,xxx [1929, I believe] re: the Silva Bet shows it, but whether it is claimed as an invention, I'd have to analyze the pat. Nevertheless its portrayal would tend to discourage other makers. No 2, it was only operable for a limited period of time prob. because poor thread design , material and lubrication problems. It just "froze up" , a repair nightmare I'm told. There were [and still are] a number of slightly-differing designs of the metals re: metal, bore size, barrel/mp etc, which may partially account for tuning problems and poor reputation, except for a few [more expensive?] horns . Don
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Author: Mark P.
Date: 2002-02-05 03:06
Don,
I have a 1940 Conn metal clarinet with an adjustable barrel similar to the micro-tuner on the Conn "Chu" alto saxophones. It still works.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2002-02-05 21:41
Thanx, Mark P, I had entirely forgotton that older Conn [and others??] saxes also had [screw-thread] adjustable tuning necks , hopefully better designed [like yours] for long and useful life. I have the "slide/clamp" type on my Selmer alto and bass, and once finding a comfortable 440-1-2 setting, seldom need to change! Don
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