Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-02-02 18:00
After some people on the "klarinet" mailing list described the string-down-the-barrel trick, I tried it out on my best B-flat clarinet a 1937 Buffet, to see if I could lower the pitch to A. Maybe I did something wrong, but the results were unsatisfactory. I could lower the overall pitch that far, with the chalumeau register in tune. However, the throat tones got very out of whack. They were all over the place, some flat and some sharp (I've forgotten now which were which). In the clarion register, the notes in the upper joint weren't bad, but from mid-staff C on up to F# at the top of the staff, the notes had a muffled tone quality and played significantly sharp. Overall, this was not a usable option. The result sounded similar to, but worse than, the intonation problems I had on a 1958 Conn Director.
I'm going to try again with a different instrument. I have an Albert system B-flat clarinet that I know is high-pitched, because it's shorter than my other B-flat clarinets but not short enough to be C-pitched. If I don't have to pull the pitch as far down as I tried to on the modern-pitched B-flat (to bring it down to A), maybe the results will be better. Right now, that clarinet needs an overall, though. The pads and corks are totally shot, so I can't try anything with it yet.
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