 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2009-02-26 23:17
This past year 3 out of the 4 Clarinets cracked at District Orchestra, and at least 2 at District Band (one was a student of mine - he takes exceptional care of his instrument). Phila. Suburbs was the location.
Possibly it was 3 out of 8 if everyone had an A Clarinet......
That seems way, way more than just a coincidence. Maybe the school had their heating set on "weekend, unoccupied".........
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: sbrodt54
Date: 2009-02-27 00:05
David,
Two years ago District band was held near my shop (Easton High School) and during the festival I repaired 6 cracks in 6 different clarinets (all Bb), all from the conditions on stage.
The stage was fairly warm with the lights on and the clarinets were right under an air conditioning vent, I'm guessing that the drastic warm and cold did the trick. It could have been the lack of humidity in the dry, cold air or maybe a combination of both but it was quite a "repair-fest" that weekend.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2009-02-27 01:23
That's how my first Buffet cracked - during a break (or just after we started playing after the break) at a District Band festival rehearsal when I was a high school sophomore. I never knew just what caused it.
Could have something to do with the players all being young and mostly playing on fairly new instruments.
Karl
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Author: DixieSax
Date: 2009-02-27 22:52
The air seems a lot dryer in southern PA than in winters past - probably all the hot air blowing downwind from Harrisburg, but that's another story. I have 5 different clarinets - 3 Buffets, a Leblanc, and a Noblet Eefer that began developing loose bell rings that never had before. I cranked up the humidity at home, and so far, so good..
But every night is a new adventure as they say.
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Author: sbrodt54
Date: 2009-02-27 23:43
David,
The clarinets I repaired were mostly Buffets, but there was one Yamaha and one Selmer in there too. Only one was brand new (I sold it), some were 20 years old (handed down from parents), and the cracks were in different places. Two were in the barrel, two were top joints, one lower joint and one bell. It was quite a mix of clarinets of different ages, styles, generations and cracks in different places. One of the only common denominators was the location.
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Author: mk
Date: 2009-02-28 19:21
I was just looking at some pictures of african blackwood in its raw state. The number of cracks occurring naturally during its life cycle is exceptional. It's only the prized check-free pieces that make it to our musical instruments. The high density of this wood is exactly that which makes it so desirable to instrument makers, furniture makers, and the like. The high density of this wood also makes it less flexible to temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure changes......so when something has to give, a crack results. Like anything that resists change, slow introduction to fluctuations in temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure will help reduce the number of cracks.
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