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 to take apart or not
Author: Bob Gardner 
Date:   2000-04-03 14:51

Do you feel it is a good idea to take you carlinet apart every night or is it ok to leave it assembled? Soem say that it is a good idea to put it back in the case at the end of the day.
have a good day
Bob

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 RE: to take apart or not
Author: Don Berger 
Date:   2000-04-03 15:24

Hi Bob, great Panda post! Re: Cl's, only occasionally do I leave a cl together except for my small collection. It seems that my cork grease disappears with the possibility of disassembly damage, and I prefer to not encounter a wider temp. change than necessary [in the case]. Just my hang-ups, I guess. Don

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 RE: to take apart or not
Author: Ron Braun 
Date:   2000-04-03 17:02

Bob,
Like everybody else I just took apart my clarinet after wvery use because that is what I was taught to do; I never knew the reason. However once I kept it together for a long weekend. A group of us were doing quintets for three days. Although I swabbed my clarinet I never took it apart. When I tried taking it apart the night before my departure I couldn't. I wrapped the ends with rubberbands to give more surface area to grab but it didn't work. The next morning I also couldn't break it down and had to travel with it still together. Only another day later without playing it and allowing it to dry was I able to take it apart. The danger as I see it is that you are allowing wate to soak into thw wood and especially the joints.


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 RE: to take apart or not
Author: Mark Charette 
Date:   2000-04-03 17:16

I leave mine assembled & on a stand (no little kids, no animals, and a safe out-of-the-way nook in my office). However, I take it apart after every use and swab out each socket & tenon. I don't recommend this, of course, but it's been 3 years now with no ill effects.

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 RE: to take apart or not
Author: mike 
Date:   2000-04-03 19:33

Well, Mark's post pretty much addresses what I would have listed as reasons to take one's clarinet apart. I suspect that it is very important to swab out the clarinet after use, making sure that the tenons & sockets are dry. I would also note that one doesn't save any time then, as Mark assembles and breaks his clarinet down as often as I do mine. I just store mine in the case so my cats can't work on their clarinet chops when I'm at work. Usually, it takes longer for my reeds to reach playing condition than it does for me to assemble the clarinet.

As you don't mention that you see any increased slop in the joints, I suppose that compression of the corks doesn't seem to be an issue?

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 RE: to take apart or not
Author: Mark Charette 
Date:   2000-04-03 20:11

Mike,
No slop in the corks after 3 years.

I leave it assembled on the stand for a few reasons, one being that I'm more likely to do 10 minute practice sessions 4 or 5 times a day that way. My free time comes in spurts - with wife, kids, work, Sneezy, and a new Webcasting venture making demands on my time. Not that I mind the demands, but the practice time doesn't tend to be in a block anymore.

If I didn't have all the other things to do and could really allocate a specific time then I might do things differently.

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 RE: to take apart or not
Author: Bob Gardner 
Date:   2000-04-03 21:10

i saw my repair man today and he suggests taking it apart at night in order to allow the cork to return to normal. so like mark I'l leave it togeather during the day and into the case at night.
Thanks for your comments.
Bob

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 RE: to take apart or not
Author: Kontragirl 
Date:   2000-04-03 21:13

I am guilty of leaving all of my horns together. It's not really a good idea in my house, with the two cats that hate my clarinet, but if I leave it in a closed off room, it's usually safe. I haven't had any bad wear and tear on it, so it should be okay. I wouldn't leave it together overnight because I've seen some nasty things happen to wooden clarinets. I guess as a rule of thumb, I would never leave it together for more than eight hours. Just a guessimate.

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 RE: to take apart or not
Author: J. Butler 
Date:   2000-04-04 00:40

I think a lot has to do with the climate and humidity in the area which you live. I don't think anyone in the Southeast (Coastal) area of Texas should leave their instrument together for long periods of time. I've seen too many of them with tenon damage caused by the wood swelling. I recommend taking it apart daily in our climatic situation.

J. Butler

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 RE: to take apart or not
Author: Mickey 
Date:   2000-04-05 01:01

Funny how this issue keeps coming up on the list.. doesn’t mater how long I stay away.. it keeps popping up when I come back...Smiles.. And as in the past Mark keeps his together and I don’t. I have had the same clarinet corks for 20 years. Swabbing the joints and inside every time. It’s a good thing we’re separated by the net.. it could get to blows … lol.

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 RE: to take apart or not
Author: Bob Gardner 
Date:   2000-04-05 01:22

Mickey:
It's just like Harry Truman use to say "The only thing that is new is what we forgot"

Mickey wrote:
-------------------------------
Funny how this issue keeps coming up on the list.. doesn’t mater how long I stay away.. it keeps popping up when I come back...Smiles.. And as in the past Mark keeps his together and I don’t. I have had the same clarinet corks for 20 years. Swabbing the joints and inside every time. It’s a good thing we’re separated by the net.. it could get to blows … lol.

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 RE: to take apart or not
Author: Jim 
Date:   2000-04-06 04:26

As a kid I would leave my then student wooden horn together for days at a time summers in Atlantic City, NJ. I would guess almost as humid a spot as the Texas coast. No air cond. in those days either. During the winter I would occasionally leave it in the case in the school band closet with all of the heating pipes running through it and a temp of around 90. I got away with it and that horn never had cracks, stuck joints or cork trouble. (I also did the same with a school owned oboe, no trouble with that either.)

Would I try that now? No way! (I've gotten smarter!)

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 RE: it can be helpful!
Author: Don Berger 
Date:   2000-04-06 16:28

I'm working up a somewhat-unplayed plastic Vito for a friend. On assembly after C O A treatment, I found several corks very tight, so after plentiful cork-greasing, I left it assembled overnight, fearing "frozen" tenon-in-sockets. They now fit snugly, but not too tight, I guess the corks compressed enough to approach the previous dimensions. Don

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 The other problem
Author: Gary Van Cott 
Date:   2000-04-06 17:28

Aside from the problem of stuck joints, a clarinet will get dirty from the dust (or worse) in the air if it is left out all the time.

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