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Re: Oh, the horror - gunk in toneholes

Author: Matt Locker
Date: 2006-01-16 15:33

Let me tell you about my new clarinet:

I've owned my Yamaha SEV for about 5 years now. During this time I've always been frustrated by the airyness & lack of balance of the throat tones. I've had the register key off a number of times to clean it, have had my clarinet rebuilt once. The rebuild helped but didn't cure the problem. I've never really been happy with that aspect of the clarinet but loved the rest of it. Finally last week I pulled the G#/A keys just to see if more venting would help. Imagine my surprise when I found the tone holes half plugged with something. My guess is that some of it was there from the beginning and additional gunk has been added over time due to swabbing & also to having a cat. I'm really quite surprised as I'm religious about brushing before playing, swabbing after, generally keeping everything clean. Anyway, after cleaning & reassembling, I now have a clarinet that is absolutely phenomenal! I love it in every way. The airyness is gone completely from the G#/A and the balance is great. The Bb is only slightly airy but balances well overall.

I have always been a swab mpc-bell person, and will still remain predominantly that. However, the orientation of the gunk was apparently made worse by the constant direction of my swabbing. With that said, I'm now going to be swabbing bell-mpc at least once each time I clean. I will also be pulling the keys at least once per year to clean the tone holes.

MOO,
Matt

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