 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ghuba
Date: 2005-12-10 00:40
To test a humistat and what its effect should be inside a clarinet case, I took a newly filled one -- using David Blumberg's suggestion to presoak it for a few hours. I took one of Dr. Henderson's calibrated hygrometers that was reading about 20% in my home in the Southeast U.S. and put it inside a zip lock bag with a completely filled humistat set full open. Within about an hour, the hygrometer was reading 64% relative humidity. As a comparison case, I took the hygrometer out fo the bag until it reached a setting of 20% again and then I used a small piece of wet t-shirt thoroughly wrung out and rubber banded into a small ball in the bag instead of the humistat. With the wet rags instead of the humistat, the relative humidity inside the bag rose to 70%.
Suffering from PhDitis like Dr. Henderson, I actually repeated this test a few times using different humistats and different hygrometers and got about the same result repeatedly.
[Guess I had too much time on my hands today.]
Also, a barrel with loose rings placed inside the 70% humidity bag had nice tight rings 12 hours later. And, yes, I used a barrel that is a "spare" that will never be used as the test object in case it cracked. And before I rehumidified it, I took the loose rings completely off, removed the paper that had been wedged in previously by someone to tighten it, and then rehumidified it with very loose rings against the wood.
As a practical matter, I have never been able to get a hygrometer to go much above 45% relative humidity in an actual clarinet case, I guess because the case is more porous than a zip lock bag and the air circulates more poorly. Usually I have two humistats in the case with the hygrometer.
George
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-12-10 11:36
The good thing about the humistat is that it releases the humidity over a long period of time. So you aren't having to babysit the humidity device every day like some of the other methods. It can do that as it holds quite a bit of water and releases it very slowly (or whatever humidity setting you set it for).
I have 2 in my double case too - both are close to the top joints on either side figuring that the upper joint will crack first.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-12-10 13:44
George and David - You guys are to be thanked by all of us for effective research, on a seasonal-critical subject. You went beyond my feeble attempts. I'm glad to know about the R H reaching 45% in a closed case, thats about OUR usual other-3 seasons average, so it should be my desired target. I do renew the wet sponges in my "pill-tubes" about once a week. No cracked cls, yet !! TKS, Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: ghuba
Date: 2005-12-10 15:18
To amend the original experiment slightly, after 4 hours, the humistat in the plastic bag got the humidity up to 70% consistent with David's comment about slow release of water.
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Author: ghuba
Date: 2005-12-10 15:28
Don Berger wrote:
> George and David - You guys are to be thanked by all of us for
> effective research, on a seasonal-critical subject. You went
> beyond my feeble attempts. I'm glad to know about the R H
> reaching 45% in a closed case, thats about OUR usual other-3
> seasons average, so it should be my desired target. I do renew
> the wet sponges in my "pill-tubes" about once a week. No
> cracked cls, yet !! TKS, Don
>
Thanks Don. As painful as it must be to have an R13 or other clarinet currently in production crack, I suspect it is even more painful to have an old Selmer Balanced Tone or Paris Mazzeo crack (and I have primarily old horns here in winter 20% humidity) because of their age and irreplaceability. As great as modern gluing and carbon fiber techniques are, they just don't look real authentic on an Artie Shaw era instrument or Selmer Paris horn designed by Rosario Mazzeo!!! So, I am hopeful that everybody here will share their research and wisdom on just plain avoiding cracks and other wear-and-tear damage.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-12-10 16:05
Keep the keywork swedged. Old instruments suffer greatly from keywear at the pivot points - that is typically one of the most problematic things with older instruments.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-12-10 21:15
Having a fine horn and then having it crack reminds me of the story about the farmer's daughter who was "just a little bit pregnant". Even if the horn is scientifically as good as before....it just ain't the same in one's mind.
Yes, thanks for some experimental results as we usually dine on opinions.
Bob Draznik
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