Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2006-06-08 12:12
I completed work on b.roke's Couesnon clarinet, and am now intimately familiar with it. Just a few comments.
- The instrument plays really well for me. Disclaimer: I am not a professional player, and I am currently 'rusty'..
- The post locking was mentioned further up this thread. I don't really see a need for such post locking. If the thread of the post is a loose fit, it still needs attention, whether it has a lock or not, because the lock keeps the post from turning, but does not stop it from wobbling. But yes, these locks were of a good design. I had to secure several slightly loose posts on this instrument.
- The timber seemed to be of excellent quality.
- Some key cup arms were of thin profile and somewhat weak by today's standards. This instrument will have to be handled with care.
- Unless extraordinarily thick pads were intended, for several keys the key cups extended rather far over the tone holes. I had to tilt some pads in their cups to avoid using very thick pads. (I don't like using VERY thick pads because they project a long way and are far more subject to abrasion damage.)
- The centre tenon seems to have suffered over the years because the width of the timber sections was very narrow.
- There are several signs of older design in this clarinet, such as the flat-springs on the C#/G# and F#/C# keys, and the lack of milling around the C#/G# key's tone hole.
- The pads I replaced on this clarinet were appalling in my estimation - the worst I have ever seen. They had very thick seemingly synthetic leather with a very thin leather-look-alike layer laminated to the surface, probably also polymer. They had seemingly synthetic felt which was extremely squishy and also springy, rather than being able to assume the shape required of it. The leather was very poorly attached at the back to cardboard, but some pads did not even have that. They were attached with a very thin layer around the perimeter of the back only, with what resembled PVA glue. The centre of each pad was totally unsupported.
On the whole, a clarinet exhibiting signs of high quality for its era.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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