The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: Arioso versus Allora

Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2006-07-31 15:33

(Disclaimer - I am maker of the Forte' Bb and C clarinets)
I have the greatest respect for both Sherman and Tom Ridenour and Tom has a proven track record in instrument design and modifying clarinet's acoustics. He has been generous and most helpful in suggesting fixes for daunting acoustic situations that we have encountered with the Forte' clarinets.

I do think that hard rubber may be more easily machined and possibly more consistent in milling than Grenadilla. Grenadilla is subject to unevenness and splintering (only seen at high magnification) at the tone holes and dimensional distortion may take place due to swelling or shrinkage of the wood post milling. Hard rubber too may have some environmental and temperature concerns.

I am tired of fighting the battles of trying to convince the community that manufacturing technique and finishing are paramount in producing a clarinet with superior tonal qualities. From a physics perspective the airflow through the tone hole and associated turbulence and tone hole characteristics are much more important than the contribution of vibration through a thick wall segment of any material. This material vibrational sound value contribution has been suggested to be a fraction of one percent of the total frequency sound volume produced. Although Buffet has made significant strides with a well machined and finished "plastic" Greenline series clarinet, the pervasive mentality is that wood= good and plastic, hard rubber, etc = inferior is firmly entrenched in the woodwind community.

From a statistical point of view it would take a whopping big experiment to control for the variables associated with tone production and reach a significant result denying the null hypothesis. I appreciate the observations of very talented musicians about tonal qualities which escape this poor clarinet player but without enough hard evidence I suggest that the material of the body has very little effect on tonal qualities given the significant, provable, contributions of other factors. Again, this is the hypothesis of one person and without proof only as valid as any other suggested hypothesis.
L. Omar Henderson

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics

Author

Date

Arioso versus Allora new

Musinix

2006-07-29 17:36