 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-02-14 03:06
Recently I made a post asking about the bore size of an Edgware clarinet.
Here is the part of the rest of the story:
I came by this instrument a long while back, and had posted back then about how a standard mouthpiece did not seem to fit the barrel because it was very tight going in and I was afraid to split the barrel. Tight in the plastic rim below the cork, not just in the cork. (If some of you might remember, I also had an L-4 with the same problem at the time. It was more than a year ago.)
Well, for some reason I took it out the other day and the problem still existed. Additionally, I also noticed that it won't fit over a peg that fits most of my other clarinets with a, supposedly, narrower bore, because the Edgware bore seems too narrow, within two or three inches above the end of the bell joint for the peg to fit all the way in.
I just heard from the tech who has it, someone I have trusted with all my best instruments at one time or another for years now. I swear I did not discuss this with him ahead of time, just handed it to him with a verbal description of the issue, but it is apropo, as we did discuss it here on the WW/BB in another recent post, a couple of pages back.
He says that, apparently, the tennon rings might have come loose at one time and someone overstuffed the space between the ring and the wood, so the wood expanded from the inside in, decreasing the inside diameter of the tennon socket enough to make the difference that kept the mouthpiece tennon from properly fitting inside the barrel socket.
I asked him how he had come upon this idea and he told me that, after trying a couple of other mouthpieces, he measured the tennon socket and found it exceptionally small for its purpose. He took the ring off, and found very thick shimming under it. So he took out the shims, replaced the ring, lightly steamed the socket and allowed it to expand outwardly, replaced the ring and shaved a fraction of a millimeter off the I.D. and now all the mouthpieces he tried fit the barrel just fine.
This pup sat in its case, in non-stop air conditioning and typical Florida humidity, for a couple of years
I haven't seen the instrument yet, since it was repaired (I'll see it tomorrow,) but this is what we talked about on the telephone and I thought you all might like to know what transpired.
He still doesn't know why it doesn't go all the way down over the peg, but we need some other Edgware measurements before he can do anything else towards figuring that part out and we don't have another Edgware instrument available at this time.
Chances are that if the instrument is playing in any kind of tune, we won't try to do anything else about that, but I'd still like to know if this is a standard bore Edgeware instrument.
So, all you neophytes out there, if you have one and can measure it relatively accurately, please let me know. The measurements would be: 1", 1-1/2", 2", 2-1/2", and 3" above the end of the bell tennon on the lower joint.
Thanks, if you can help, but enjoy, either way!
Peter
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Author: Todd W.
Date: 2003-02-14 17:15
Peter --
It may seem obvious, but did your tech also take off the bell socket ring to see if the same problem existed there as on the barrel?
Todd W.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-02-15 00:25
The bell socket ring is fine, the constriction actually starts somewhere about two inches above the end of the lower joint's male tenon, almost even with the top of the lowest pad cup.
The bell ring itself dances around the peg with no trouble.
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