 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Kim
Date: 2000-02-16 18:03
The Buffet-Crampon swabs have gotten stuck in my clarinet many times. I prefer the silk over these.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-02-16 19:16
Kim wrote:
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The Buffet-Crampon swabs have gotten stuck in my clarinet many times. I prefer the silk over these.
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I think I've related this true tale:
My son bought his set of clarinets at ClarinetFest 1997 in Lubbock. He went to swab out the A with that Buffet cotton swab and promptly got it stuck - really stuck! We ended up having Tom Ridenour, Clark Fobes, Eddie Daniels, Jonathan Cohler, and a bunch of other high-powered players and repairfolk trying to help us get that @#$%^ swab unstuck! Took a good half-hour to get it pried loose without damaging anything.
Went and bought a silk swab right then and there ...
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Author: Craig1
Date: 2000-02-16 20:05
Pulling the swab from top of barrel thru bell end is also the safest pull-thru direction.
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2000-02-16 23:09
Five minutes before a concert with my Philharmonic Orchestra, I had to swab out my Eb-cl. I was using a cotton swab and it got stuck. I panicked and pulled it too hard so the speaker-pipe came out with it. I didn't discover it before I tried to play. The speaker-pipe was not to be found anywhere. As the rest of the orchestra was going on stage a cellist found it under a chair. I fixed it sitting on stage during the tuning procedure. Since then I'm using a silk swab for the Eb-clarinet. (We were playing R. Strauss Till Eulenspiegel). Any more stories like that?
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Author: Margaret Copeland
Date: 2000-02-17 14:11
I think every oboist intiates their oboe by getting the swab stuck. I watched this happen one time to a friend. She tried to quickly swab her oboe during a rest period in her music. She went too fast - the swab twisted as they do and she was stuck tight. Fortunately #2 oboe saw the problem and played her part. Sadly at intermission the well meaning conductor tried to remove the swab with a flute cleaning rod by pushing on it through the reed well. She damaged the well and put a knick in the bore.
So if you get stuck - no matter what - don't pull harder. This will make it much more difficult to remove. There are special swab removing tools and even with those it takes a careful person. Sometimes the swab has to be cut out. If that happens, all the little fibers have to be cleaned out of the bore.
How to swab: use a double ended swab, drop swab into bore, watch for twisting and grabbing on keys, go slow. You can either pull through or go back and forth a remove the swab. I actually start by swabbing my top joint from the well down for the first pass. I then put the swab in through the bottom of the top joint until the leader go through the reed well. I then invert the top joint and swab a few more times.
For the 2nd joint and bell, I use a larger swab and go bottom up - no inversion necessary. With a clarinet you might not have to be so careful with the upper joint but I want to avoid squeegeeing water in the tone holes.
Better yet, in concert, if you feel you are getting watery,compressed air is faster and lasts longer. Don't lay any wind instrument on your lap during rests. Throw away any swabs in which the stitching around the sides of the cloth or cord begin to fray.
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Author: John Scorgie
Date: 2000-02-17 17:09
A nice silk swab adds a touch of elegance to a mundane chore. For those of you who prefer the old style chamois swab, as I do, here is a simple method which will ensure that you never again have a stuck swab problem.
Drop in the swab from the top of the upper joint. Pull GENTLY. If you feel ANY appreciable resistance, STOP PULLING. At this point, you can easily fish the swab back out the top end of the upper joint, possibly using a tool such as the eraser end of a #2 pencil, without damaging anything. Using a pair of scissors, cut material out of the swab where it is thickest. Repeat the process and trim again if necessary until the swab slides through the bore easily.
Remember that the purpose of a swab is to remove gross amounts of moisture, not to get the bore absolutely bone dry.
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Author: Roger Merriam
Date: 2000-02-19 13:25
Only a silk swab should be used. While my R-13 is off for replating I borrowed a friends's R-13. It is his back up clarinet. The open G sounded more like F#. It turned out that there was gunk in the tone holes---once I removed it the instrument was in tune. The gunk appears to be lint and cork grease, etc. I have seen lint and deposits on my R-13. A lint swab can cause problems---use silk.
I was also taught to insert the swab into the bell---that way it naturally works itself into being long and narrow.
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Author: beejay
Date: 2000-02-27 11:05
As I said in an earlier exchange, Buffet Crampon have taken to making their cotton swabs larger and thicker than a few years ago. Goodness knows why.
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