 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bart
Date: 1999-10-18 12:21
There are quite some people on this BB who play with a different barrel than the original that was supplied with their (good quality) instrument.
While I see the advantages of “upgrading“ your mouthpiece and ligature, the barrel is somewhat less easy to understand. My teacher has never mentioned it to me, this BB was the first occassion where I found out about it.
Are the original ones inferior? The material should be OK, and the barrel fits exactly to the upper joint.
What kind of sound improvement could one expect with a different barrel?
Kind regards,
Bart.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-10-18 18:43
Bart,
OEM barrels are not necessarily deficient in any manner; however, people vary drastically in the tone they produce and the resistance they desire while playing. Changing the barrel will change some very important playing characteristics, most noticeable these two. A different length barrel can also partially fix an inherent intonation problem.
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Author: Larry A.
Date: 1999-10-18 19:42
As Mark says, OEM barrels are fine but having just gone through the new barrel process with my daughters Bb and A clarinets, dramatic changes can be found in different barrels.
After a minor fitting hiccup, my daughter found Bb and A Chadash barrels that she feels are less "stuffy" and give her Buffets a nice, rich, dark tone.
Not being a player,I was cynical about spending so much money on barrels, but after hearing them played side by side I must admit to hearing quite a difference!
The best thing to do is try a few on approval, all have slightly different characteristics, even among same brands, and if you do not notice an improvement then you do not have to buy.
Worth looking into....
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Author: Bart
Date: 1999-10-19 06:57
OK, if the sound is better, than that is the final “authoritive“ reason to change.
But what causes the difference in resistance and the difference in tone? I.e. in what way are other barrels different (I mean: in proportions, internal shape etc.).
This is fairly easy to see with differing mouthpieces for example, but other than varying length of the barrel, what differences are there?
Does anyone know a link to some site where I could read about it?
Thanks,
Bart.
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Author: HIROSHI
Date: 1999-10-19 07:52
This is the best site elaborating that topic.
http://www.jdhite.com/mouthpieces/shop1.htm
p.s. Other barrels are more or less made taking hints from Moennig barrel,I guess.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-10-19 12:17
Bart wrote:
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OK, if the sound is better, than that is the final (I mean: in proportions, internal shape etc.).
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The answer is:
Yes.
A barrel can be:
1) Cylindrical
2) conical (either narrow from mouthpiece widenind to the clarinet - cone - or wide from the mouthpiece narrowing towards the clarinet - reverse cone
3) Double conical (two cones tucked next to each other). I don't really know which end of the cone generally goes where, though (internal flaring or constriction).
The internal dimensions of these could be different from barrel to barrel.
The barrel acts as an "acoustic impedance matcher", meaning it allows sound to be generated with little resistance starting at the mouthpiece, where things are smaller, to the clarinet body. Things in this region tend to happen non-linearly, so a small change in barrel dimension can make a big difference in sound.
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Author: Jos Valster
Date: 1999-10-23 20:00
Hallo I play under very changeble situations in cirkustents concsrthall`s bars etc.
I am also doubling with saxes and the problem then is the temperature of the instruments I have 3 barrels on me so I can cgange quicckly to play in tune.
Indeed barrels sounds different but in 5 minutes I myself sound the same on my 3 barrels.
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