The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Steve
Date: 2000-07-03 03:45
I play a Yamaha 34 that's about 20 years old. It produces a good tone in all but some of the chalmeau notes played with the left-hand, only (C through E, specifically). What could be causing this? A pad leak, perhaps? C# and Eb are the worst performers.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-07-03 13:50
I'd suggest that you and/or a competent repair person look for bad pads, and then see if the pad openings are sufficient. Frequently I open the C#/G# [as on an Evette-Sch of about your cl's age] to improve/balance, volume and clarity with adjacent notes. I'm sure John B and Dave S and others can give you improved advice. Don
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-07-03 18:48
In addition to Don's suggestions, ask the technician to clean all the tone holes. Over the years, they can get build ups that aren't really noticeable but can affect how the instrument sounds. The chalumeau C# is very sensitive to this as are the throat A, Ab, and, above all, the Bb.
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Author: DLE
Date: 2000-07-04 08:52
I used to have the very same problem with my old, plastic clarinet and never got rid of it. Every time I'd go into the lower range, I'd get nothing but fuzz from the clarinet, which was extremely annoying as I was a 3rd clarinet in a concert band at the time!
I might be wrong here, but how I overcame the problem after I got my new clarinet, was to get a new mouthpiece - a selmer one, to replace the buffet mouthpiece that came with the clarinet. This was from advice from my teacher and since then, I haven't had many problems with tone at all.
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