 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Mel
Date: 2002-07-13 17:22
I recently recieved my Selmer Signet Special. The only problem i have with it is the intonation. It's not a major problem at the moment, but I was wondering if getting the tone holes fraised would help with the problem. If so, how much would it cost to get them fraised? Also, does anyone know of a reputable woodwind tech. in the Central New Jersey area? Thanks for your help.
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Author: jbutler
Date: 2002-07-13 17:26
That is not a simple solution. Frasing will raise the pitch of a particular note, which in turn will spread the twelth even more. One has to be careful when doing this type of custom work, and frankly, you may wind up spending more money than the instrument is worth.
<a href="http://www.cork-and-pad.woodwind.org">jbutler</a>
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2002-07-14 00:29
Mel,
My advice would be to spend some time getting to know your instrument before you run off to have work like this done on it. Most clarinets have notes that aren't perfectly in tune but, if they are not off by a significant margin, the player learns to compensate with small adjustments in the embouchure. You are used to your current clarinet with whatever faults it has and you're probably making the same compensations on your new one that you learned unconsciously on your old one. After you're comfortable with the new instrument, if it still has some bad notes, then it may be time to see a good repair tech. The adjustment may simply be adjusting the height of a key cup or the thickness of a key cork or working with the crow's foot. Fraising may not even be in it.
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: Wes
Date: 2002-07-14 01:27
If you can find the Clark Fobes articles about clarinet tuning in the clarinet journal and possibly on this site, they may be interesting to you. It may be best to play the clarinet a while and then write down what you feel the tuning problems are. Undercutting the tone holes can raise the pitch in the low register while leaving the second register unchanged so one must have specific goals in mind before doing this kind of change. Many repairmen don't try to do clarinet tuning as it is not generally a profitable business to be in because of the time required to do the work. Good luck!
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-07-15 17:43
Mel -
Fraising is done to correct the intonation or even out the tone quality of particular notes, and each note and hole is worked on individually. It's not a magic process that you do to all the holes and it automatically corrects everything.
For a Selmer Signet Special, which was an intermediate step-up from a plastic Bundy, it's frankly not worth the work. When the intonation problems start to get in the way, and you become sensitive to them, it's time to get a top-line instrument that has these problems mostly taken care of. If you want to stay with Selmer, you should start saving for a Signature. Even at that level, intonation is not perfect, and an artist technician can touch up things with a bit of fraising, but you have to start with an instrument that's pretty close to begin with.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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