 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: John_May
Date: 2005-04-05 19:21
Well, I've scoured the archives with that handy search tool in an attempt to find an answer to this question and to satisfy my curiosity as well as find an answer for a class on this... so what's the physicist's explanation for the effects of a wider bore vs. a narrower bore on the sound produced? That is to say, the loudness (which I assume has to do with greater air displacement), but also the timbre and the difficulty in keeping notes in tune? There seem to be a few experts on this subject around here, so if anyone has some insight, I'd appreciate it.
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Author: bob49t
Date: 2005-04-05 20:32
Good question.
Maybe emailing Peter Eaton might come up with some answers.
He makes the wide bore Elite and the narrower International. Both world class instruments.
If he can spare the time he may be able to shed a little light.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-04-06 18:31
I believe Gibson, in Cl Acoustics, has some to say about bore/length relationships, as does Brymer/ Rendall and others like, Benade's extensive research. Not simple, Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Shorthand
Date: 2005-04-06 19:00
Start here:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/waves/clocol.html#c1
What you see there is actually an approximation of a clarient with a bore of 0. With an infinitely thin bore - the sound has only one valid path and therefore there is only one effective length of the clarient.
With bigger bores, what you get is several clarients of different length at once. The difference in lengths varies as 1- cos of the bore width - so its really close to zero for small bores and stays flat for a while but eventually starts to curve up.
This is what causes the difference in tone - the fundamental becomes a distribution of fundamental tones close to each other with larger bores. The spread gets even bigger in the higher harmonics (shorter wavelenghts, etc.) - so you get a more complex harmonic structure and tone.
This is also why tuning is an engineering challenge with larger bore instruments - its hard to tell which mode you're going to pick up and amplify if there are a bunch running around. I think this is also why throat notes are fuzzy by nature (with the short length - the angles available become large - so you can get more white noise - of course much of that are reed tip issues too, but you knew that.)
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