 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Franklin Liao
Date: 2009-06-15 23:12
Hi. I am basically a novice clarinet player with no professional aspiration, although ironic how I live in Burnaby, blocks away from Backun's workshop...
My 'inherited' Artley 17s's bottom half keywork became too sluggish and not worth the money to service, so I have pulled the trigger and obtained a Bliss which when I tried was an instrument unlike any other within its price range. The LB320 in demo is a delight to play, with very light and articulate keys, beautiful clarion range and puts me for the first time in altissimo territory with ease.
Mechanically speaking, this thing exceeded what I dare ask at the price range.In short, I fell in love with this instrument comparing to even other intermediate range instruments that I get to fool around with during the last few days.
However unit that I have with me, only 3 hours old since unboxing has a very serious problem, being that the bottom half does not react unless I apply up to mezzo forte and that it isn't reliably doing its job despite how robust the keyworks are.
To make sure that it isn't due to my incompetence, I pulled the old Artley and found that good'ol A in chalumeau range was effortless to get to, and that's how it should be.
I tried to see if lower half reacts the same way on the LB320 in clarion and it exhibits the same symptom. At times, the bottom half simply gives up while my upper half does its duties.
After putting both instruments side by side, I found that on the bottom part of the body, the connecting 'point' between the lower and upper half of the keywork has a... padding that's rather small, shifted to one side and doesn't act in the capacity of a cushion as well as on the 17s. This may explain why the keyworks flow about smoothly yet the lower part refuses to work.
With a one day young instrument, my questions are...
1) should I merely 'nudge' this padding so that we get the cushion just right?
2) should I make an appointment with maestro Backun over something this trivial or should I turn to the music shop that I've purchased this baby from?
3) should I attempt to see if I can make a more definite call on my assumption of the source by mix'n match the two clarinets despite how that the LB320 Bliss has a rather 'unique' fitting?
EDIT1:
I found out that if I pull apart the lower and upper joint and leave a gap of a few millimeters, I can get the instrument to function. When the joints are snugly fit together however, this issue re-emerges.
Post Edited (2009-06-15 23:43)
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Author: jparrette
Date: 2009-06-16 00:10
Morrie does read this board.....I'm sure he'll be along shortly. In the mean time, being so close, you should contact his shop. I'm sure he'd like to know if the clarinets are leaving the factory with issues.
The shop number is 604-205-5770.
It sounds to me like the bridge mechanism between the 2 joints isn't adjusted properly. An easy fix.
John Parrette
CLARION MUSICAL SERVICES
john@clarionmusical.com
914-805-3388
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Author: Morrie Backun
Date: 2009-06-16 02:21
Hello Franklin,
Thank you for the nice comments about the Bliss that you tried. I am pleased that you liked it.
Every instrument is play tested after assembly in Elkhart Indiana, by professional players, so it sounds like something may have happened in shipping.
I think that the felt bumper on the bridge key may have shifted, possibly when it was assembled for the first time. The other possibility is that the bridge key has gotten bent just enough to stop the 3 ring key (right hand) from closing. Either of these is very simple and should take less than one minute to fix.
I suggest that you call the store that you purchased it from, or call me and it will be quick and painless to adjust the instrument.
regards,
Morrie
Morrie Backun
Backun Musical Services
604-205-5770
morrie@backunmusical.com
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Author: Franklin Liao
Date: 2009-06-16 03:17
Thank you Mr.Backun for the prompt reply. I have contacted you by phone and left a message as well as sending an email about the subject matter.
By the way, I have a question and an extension of this question. Can you use a longer barrel to knock down the pitch of the instrument by 2 hertz? If such an option is available, then one can reliably address every single issue that has been raised for the Bliss.
Assuming that one can use a barrel to drop the pitch, is there a way for a Bb clarinet to quickly become an A clarinet? I imagine that keeping a barrel at the same humidity and temperature will be much easier than having one clarinet on stand-by...
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2009-06-16 20:32
You can never make a Bb clarinet play as an A with a longer barrel as the tonehole positions are different, as are the joint lengths. I'm not a physicist by any means so I won't put up any formulae or other equations which I know nothing about, but I'll try to explain in layman's terms what I can see happening.
If you put a Bb and A next to each other and line them up so the top tenon shoulders are both level with each other, you can see the distances between the toneholes where the identical sounding notes issue from are similarly placed (eg. throat G# on the Bb is in the same relative position as throat A on the A and the low F# tonehole on the Bb is in the same relative position as the low G tonehole on the A). But changing the barrel length will throw the entire scale out - it will have the largest effect on the LH notes and a lesser effect (although a significant one) on the lowest notes so the clarinet won't be in tune with itself.
The clarinet tonehole positioning is like a guitar fingerboard in that the distance between semitones (ie. each tonehole) increases as the notes get lower. So with the guitar fingerboard in mind taking the low E string as a good example, the clarinet works in a similar way - the bridge being the mouthpiece and the fingerboard and frets being the toneholes.
Each fret (and tonehole) gets closer together as you go up the scale and there's a ratio that dictates where the frets and toneholes are best positioned so each semitone is a semitone. If the frets were all the same distance apart, each semitone will get wider as you go up the scale - likewise if all toneholes were the same diameter and the same distance from each other, you'd have a clarinet with increasingly wider intervals as you go up the instrument.
If you move the bridge away from its ideal position in relation to the fingerboard, you will ruin the scale as the frets are still fixed in the ideal position for the scale (string) length. The same applies to toneholes on clarinets as these can't be moved around (without filling and redrilling them) so the scale is thrown out of kilter.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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