 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tim Wilson
Date: 2000-07-31 00:43
Can anyone enlighten me as to what exactly it means to have a clarinet that is tuned to 442? I have a full boehm Buffet, 1952 vintage, and it seems that it plays about 1/4 step sharp compared to my R-13. Could this mean that it is tuned to A 442?? If so, what does that really mean? Can I get it to play "in tune"? What do I need to do to this clarinet to bring it down?? Thanks!!
-Tim
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-07-31 02:14
An A=442 is nowhere near a 1/4 step higher than A=440. With an appropriate setup (mouthpiece, barrel, perhaps pulling at center joint in addition to barrel joint), it can be played in a group of A=440 instruments though it will also take some skill as some notes may need a little lipping to get in tune.
Try cleaning all the tone holes. Try a different mouthpiece (some are notoriously sharp). Has it got a proper length barrel?
If it weren't so new, I would guess that it might be High Pitch but 1950s is much to late for that.
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Author: John
Date: 2000-07-31 14:23
Dee gave some good advice. For barrels, they are mostly measured in mm. You could measure yours and give a try to a barrel 1 or 2 mm longer.
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Author: Todd H.
Date: 2000-07-31 23:19
FWIW, my 1953(possibly '54 Buffet 19 key & 7 ring, no long Eb/Bb) has a 61 mm barrel and is less than 10 cents off(+/- 5 cents almost throughout the range), if I pull it about 1 mm. Except for throat f# up to pinch Bb which have to be lipped down about a quarter tone.The bell has to be pulled a lot(4mm) to get the long B down to pitch. This is a little better than when I put a 62 mm barrel on, for some reason I don't understand. Strangely to me, the twelfths above these are pretty well tuned with the 61 mm bbl, except the squeak zone above the high G is still unreliable for me; maybe it will improve with even more practice. (At this point the dog still has to leave the room for the duration of those notes!)
Maybe not very "enlightening", but so far it works O.K. for me. Good luck.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-07-31 23:33
An excellent commentary, Todd, it will be very helpful to those of us with Full [or 3/4] Boehms , which are different clars.!! Your humor of it also comes thru very well. IMHExperience, all cl's have to be tuned while playing!! Don
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