 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: pelo_ensortijado
Date: 2007-06-09 22:58
are there clarinets that are made from unusual kinds of wood?
grenadilla, rosewood, cocobolo, and rubber/plastic i allready know of. what else??
birch, pine, spruce, beech, maple, mountain ash, reg. ash??
anyone got experience with any of it???
is it possible to make a good clarinet out of any of them??
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2007-06-09 23:20
A lot of [local] recorders are made of pearwood here. While this seems to be an acoustically sound decision, it appears that the wood is fine but just not hard enough to withstand the stress of pillars, keys and other contraptions.
(pear, apple, plums, almonds etc are all rosaceae, now I wonder why tropical hardwoods are called rosewood)
Many of these woods contain too many irregularities (like branch roots etc) that can easily warp or crack an expensive piece of work. Others are too soft (spruce, pine) or too vivid (ash) even in conditioned and seasoned state.
Then again, what fun is it to use an unusual kind of wood when the first thing you're doing to it is to paint it black? Heck, we're all playing on Tin Lizzies, somehow.
--
Ben
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2007-06-09 23:22
Amati makes several models in Mpingo wood which seems to be a very good instrument wood. The only problem seems to be aesthetic because since joints are made from different trees they tend to change colors from the brownish orange to chocolate-yellowish with different hues for each piece of wood. We have been experimenting with Ipe wood from South America which has many properties of Grenadilla and the cost and supply are much better. There are a few speciality woods such as olive which also seems to be useful for clarinets - Orsi & Weir makes an olive wood clarinet. An oil content seems to be very useful for wood instruments and many hardwood speices do not react well to wet environments.
L. Omar Henderson
www.doctorsprod.com
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-06-09 23:44
Isn't Mpingo another name for grenadilla?
Amati use Mopani on some of their clarinets which looks like rosewood, and Tom Sparkes uses Australian Mulga wood as an option on his oboes.
I remember a customer wanting a set of oboes (oboe, d'amore and cor) all made from hornbeam which he sourced, but it wasn't dimentionally stable enough after turning - so he settled for cocobolo instruments instead.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2007-06-09 23:47)
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2007-06-10 21:18
I agree with what both Omar and Chris have said, "Our African Blackwoods" have a number of names/varieties, its "best for ww's" characteristics are its density, machinability, stability and minimum "water-swelling" as far as I know. Rendall in his book The Clarinet, discusses the features needed for wood inst mfgr. I believe Brymer and others of our "good books" do also. We have discussed this "choice" issue several times before, so Search our archives for those threads. I believe the best bassoons are made of maple, is that rite, folks ? Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-06-10 23:55
German bassoons are generally made from maple with a lined descending bore (in plastic or ebonite) to prevent moisture damage, though some older German bassoons have been made in rosewood (as are French bassoons, though they have been made in maple too, as well as ebonite), as well as in various plastics. You'd always expect to buy a top model (German) bassoon made from maple.
I don't know if beech has been used for woodwinds - is beech more dense than maple? I'd imagine it may be.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2007-06-11 00:15
My bad - it is Mopani that Amati uses for several of their instruments.
L. Omar Henderson
www.doctorsprod.com
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