 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: stebinus
Date: 2004-10-03 09:35
I've been playing the clarinet for 35 years plus and have replaced the occaisional pad (adequately). Recently found an E-11 with three bent keys, a couple chips on the lower joint and needing all new pads and corks . Am thinking of doing the work myself. I'm pretty handy, have a book, am relatively patient and am in no rush but want to end up with a horn in very good playing shape. Does this seem like a realistic prospect or should I just take the thing to the guy who does all the repairs in our area? He says about $115 for everything but even this is a sizeable bite to me and I'd like to have these skills myself so I can also overhaul my main horn (Selmer 9*) and work on anything else that comes my way. What I don't want to do, however, is go through a do-it-yourself nightmare and end up with schlock jobs.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2004-10-03 11:21
It is unusual to do a complete overhaul and not encounter a range of spicy little problems to sort out. The DIYer is quite likely not to even recognise that they exist, and it is impossible to impart through a forum situation, the experience and insight necessary to recognise them and deal with them effectively.
If you want the experience, then go ahead. If you want to minimise the pain and inefficiency (and damage!) during this learning process, there are really no short cuts other than working with an experienced technician who is a good teacher. I wonder if you could arrange this with a cooperative local technician.
Some encouraging words..... I began much as you intend, except that the first instrument I overhauled was my own, run-over Haynes flute that Haynes had declared "badly wrecked". It never became a top professional flute again, but it became good enough for a local woodwind specialist shop to swap it for a barely-used, Buffet, full-Boehm clarinet, along with regular out-work to begin a new career in instrument repair, with no formal training.
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Author: hans
Date: 2004-10-03 13:41
Stebinus,
Been there, done that. I had much the same background, some repair manuals, and a well equipped work shop but I still couldn't get the thing to play after I replaced the pads and straightened the keys, etc.
IMO, Gordon's advice, as usual, is the way to go; i.e., work with an experienced technician who is a good teacher.
Regards,
Hans
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2004-10-03 13:59
A great discussion ! For me, its "how far can I go WITHOUT doing more damage than improvement to my and other's instruments . I have "tinkered" farther with clarinets than with saxes [prob. because of the sax's greater complexity] particularly in trying to find reasons for our "bad notes" and correct them if I can easily. So I frequently take/send my [and other's] horns to expert technicians, hoping they will let me watch their skills at work, happily most do. Again, to each his own "modus operandi" [sp ??] Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: VermontJM
Date: 2004-10-03 14:41
I love the fact that most of my students rent their instruments- if they are having issues, I try to fix it- if it can't be fixed, the rental company does it. If I completely mess it up in the process- the rental company fixes it. Kid leaves their horn in the snowbank at the busstop and the plow runs it over- rental company deals with it.
I don't fix my own instruments. I tried this overhaul thing on an old "bruno" clarinet that I played in high school- it's still sitting in about 40 pieces in its case!
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Author: stebinus
Date: 2004-10-04 09:12
Gordon could you give me a couple examples of the "spicy little problems" I might not recognize?
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2004-10-04 12:48
Loose posts that wobble.
Posts that are turned slightly by the spring, such that they jam on the key.
Springs that break and leave stumps in the posts.
Getting the appropriate thickness/length/material for flat-springs needing replacement.
Sloppy tube pivots.
Sloppy point-screw pivots.
Chips out of tone holes.
Sloppy-fitting tenon timber in tenon sockets.
A 'wall' worn in the end of the groove that the throat A spring runs in.
Throat A spring that needs careful re-shaping before it will function properly.
Keys that need to be bent to a new 'geometry' in order to function well.
Correcting poor venting, often by bending keys.
Correcting alignment of key cups over tone holes.
The adjustment of the low keys WITHOUT resorting to unreliable, squish, thick corks.
Needle springs that bind against the pivot tubes.
Rusted pivot rods that will not come out.
Stripped thread on a pivot rod.
Splits in the body.
Pivot screws and rods with wrecked heads.
Parted silver-soldering on keys.
Keys which snap when you straighten them.
Non-level tone holes.
Ring keys binding on tone holes after 'slop' has been eliminated from pivots.
etc, etc.
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Author: johnsonfromwisconsin
Date: 2004-10-04 15:03
I recently did my first "overhaul" (for lack of a better term, but it was more like a complete repad with a few new corks and such) on a student yamaha saxophone. It was a good learning experience as well as an excersize in patience (I've had the lower stack off several times trying to correct leaks).
-JfW
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Author: BobD
Date: 2004-10-04 20:09
If you have never done significant restoration work on a clarinet....don't start with an E11....you could really screw-up a nice horn. Pick up a couple of clunkers for practice.
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