Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2006-12-23 09:53
"Will someone please explain the exact method used to adjust the bridge key."
It is easily done by slight bending of either or both parts, using smooth-jawed pliers that do not mar the surface. Those who are afraid or not used to doing this usually resort to making adjustments to the thickness of linkage's silencing cork.
I agree that any precise adjustment in this area is pointless unless the pads are sealing well, with light pressure, and there is minimal play in the pivots.
Bob wrote, "As a routine part of assembling your instrument, you need to rotate the lower joint relative to the upper joint to find the sweet spot where the bridge mechanism does its job correctly."
"Claritoot26 wrote "Bob hit it on the nose. Joints should always be twisted to the spot that allows the bridge key to work properly...."
Imagine a hollow cylinder that is concentric to the body, and going through a point in the centre of the face of the silencing cork, when the keys are in the closed position.
If I am doing significant work on a clarinet, especially in this area, I modify the geometry of the linkage parts, such that the planes of both the face of the cork, and also the surface that engages the cork, are both tangents to this cylinder at the point of contact (centre of the cork)
Then having the sections of body slightly out of alignment does not affect the precisely adjusted linkage, and the concerns of Bob and Claritoot26 do not exist.
Ideally the corked area should be slightly concave, matching the curve of the cylinder described, and the surface that engages the cork should be convex, of same cylinder radius or less.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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