The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Cindy
Date: 2003-02-19 02:39
I just got my new clarinet (yay) but discovered that the barrel sticks mercilessly. It is not the cork. What is wrong with it, and what cn I do to fix it? It is so bad that in order to get the barrel off I actually have cut my palm on the keys of the clarinet. Help!
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Author: msroboto
Date: 2003-02-19 03:13
Bring it to wherever you bought it and they can relieve the barrel a bit. Had it happen to mine to and that's what they did.
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Author: William
Date: 2003-02-19 14:47
This is common with new barrels or clarinets. It could be your cork, or it may be the top of the tendon not fitting the bottom of the barrel socket (wood on wood). Your local repairperson can easily correct this "malclusion."
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Author: Mark Sloss
Date: 2003-02-19 15:34
Definitely take it to a qualified technician to check. It sounds like it is wood-on-wood. The tech will try some other barrels to see if the dimensional problem is with the top joint or with the barrel. I had the tenon on the top-joint of a new R13 cut back a bit last summer, but that was after checking it against many barrels. You can always get another barrel, but you can't glue sawdust back on your instrument.
In the meantime, use a generous but not ridiculous amount of a good quality cork grease. Spread it with your thumb inside the tenon socket on the barrel just to be sure. Also, unless it throws you way out of tune, don't push the barrel in that last milimeter. You could do serious damage torquing the barrel off.
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Author: Henry
Date: 2003-02-19 16:41
Cindy.. You don't have a good micrometer by any chance? If you do, it should be simple to measure the outside diameter of the tenon of the upper joint and the inside diameter of the barrel socket. This should tell you what the problem is. If you don't have a micrometer, a qualified technician should have one and do it for you. I'm sure it can be taken care of rather easily. Good luck!
Henry
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Author: Marcia
Date: 2003-02-20 02:19
I had that exact problem with my new (a couple of years ago) R13 and it was definitely a wood on wood problem. My repair tech shaved a bit off after carefull micrometer measuring, and it has not stuck since.
Marcia
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Author: Karel
Date: 2003-02-20 03:01
I had the same problem with the middle joint of a new R-13 which needed to have a little shave (wood on wood locking). How it got past the quality control I will never know.
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Author: Mark Sloss
Date: 2003-02-20 13:08
Karel,
Not a quality control issue. Wood clarinets (regardless of make) change dimensions depending on the phase of the moon and what you had for dinner. It undoubtedly left Paris in good order, but the tenon swelled or the socket contracted during its trip 'round the world. My latest R13 didn't start binding until months after I started playing it.
Cheers,
Mark.
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Author: Benny
Date: 2003-02-20 21:06
If you live somewhere where the winter is cold and dry, the wood of the clarinet "shrinks" a bit. This could cause the barrel to stick and become very hard to get on and off. Take it to a repair shop and have them fix it. But if it is a stock barrel, I wouldn't even bother if I were you. If you have the money, look in to getting a Moennig barrel - they usually work very nicely with R-13s.
Benny
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2003-02-20 21:23
Tendons are the parts you buy to make hotdogs.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2003-02-20 23:11
Psst - you know better than to point out a misspelling. We don't need a couple of hundred "spell checkers" out there.
The rule is, and has been, not to point out misspellings but to please spell the word correctly <b>if</b> you're making a contribution to the thread.
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