 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bill
Date: 2000-12-10 17:16
Some flute players believe that a new wooden flute improves with age, particularly after the first six months to one year. Some attribute the improvement, at least in part, to the player learning to adjust to the flute itself, and others think it's in the "magic" of the wood.
What is the thinking amongst clarinetists? I ask out of interest, and because I'm about to purchase my first wooden clarinet. I'd like to think that I can look forward to it getting even better with time.
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Author: Bob Arney
Date: 2000-12-10 17:41
Bill, I think you can answer your most important part of the question by going to any good antique shop and inspecting the furniture. Then go to a furniture store and look at what passes for "good" wooden furniture today. The real aged woods are almost history. I believe greed is the answer and they are not aged with love like they used to be but rushed onto the market to make a quick buck. Not all good aged wood is still available or even suitable so maybe that is the reason for resin-wood combinations and excellent plastic instruments.
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Author: bob gardner
Date: 2000-12-10 18:39
i would like to think that the investment we are making in todays clarinets will be a good one. However it seems that a good used horn is half the cost of a good new horn. So take your pick and be happy.
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Author: Bob Curtis
Date: 2000-12-10 21:39
Bill:
If you can find a quality good used wood clarinet is very good condition, you might, indeed, have a bargain. The secret is in the quality and care given to the instrument. Good wood, bad care makes for a not so good instrument. If in doubt about an instrument hhve a specialist check it out. I have two clarinets - one a Buffet made in '45 and a Selmer in '53, both in excellent shape, bores almost like new, etc. and they both play like a dream.
Advantage of some of the newer instruments are the assistance which the computers have given in the acoustical design which the older instruments did not have.
You look, try, look again, and then make your choice. ALWAYS get advice if you are not sure.
Bob Curtis
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Author: Willie
Date: 2000-12-11 00:27
I know when my parents had their music studio years ago, my uncle (a master piano tech) would buy and restore many older pianos. The quality ones always set folks back on their heels at the tone quality. One such piano, a 1901 Steinway grand was a perfect restoration complete with exactly 3.5 turns on the tuning pins just as from the factory. A comparison of the wood used in the soundboards of the new models still being produced and the soundboards of the older ones showed a closer grain in the older models. Wood from natural slow grown forests. Keep in mind these old pianos were EXACT restorations using the same materials and paints as the original. If it came with 21 coats (one mill thick each coat) of hand rubbed black laquer, thats what it got. I still think thats why my elbows ache today as I was his apprentice (slave labor). Most of these pianos were bought and shipped to professionals in California as they seemed to appreciate them more than the local folks here. I don't think after reading about tests discused here on sneezy that this factor may apply to clarinets by the way the sound waves travel though the "tube" of the horn whereas on the piano the soundboard acts more like a resonator. On a recent program on PRS radio there was a big discussion about the woods on violins. Fiddle players for years have maintained the theory that an excellent violin will get better when a virtuoso plays it and go down hill when in the hands of a bigginer. Many folks poo-pooed this idea as non scientific heresay. But now there are studies being done on this as some preliminary tests seem to back up this old theory that the wood molecules do seem to adjust a bit. I'm still waiting to here more on this as the tests come in.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2000-12-11 10:04
Most old instruments need plenty work done on them to play their best (otherwise they would not be sold!). It is rare for new instruments to sound their best without work being done. So don't believe that by getting 'new' you are buying perfection. I believe that the most significant factor in a 'great' horn is the adjustment work that some really good technician has done on it. I also believe really good technicians are few and far between.
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2000-12-11 15:48
Most of the people here have addressed your question from the viewpoint of comparing an instrument made in the past versus one made today. As you asked the question, you were wondering if a given instrument would improve with age. I would expect the player to be the component that will improve with age. A clarinet will gradually go out of adjustment and the pads will deteriorate, but these items can be periodically fixed to make the instrument as good as new - possibly better if they were never properly adjusted in the first place as Gordon suggests.
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Author: Anji
Date: 2000-12-14 14:24
Hey Bill,
I would echo Willie's post above; there are two competing factors.
Old grenadilla trees were pretty much all harvested by the 1970's. If you read any of the Fine woodworking books about choosing lumber it boils down to how far apart the growth rings are on the billet. Slower growth, tighter grain, denser wood.
All that said, mechanical refinements and tuning of the horn is probably an improving art. The newest horns have some very interesting design changes.
Those factors clearly compete, each with the other.
If you've got $3000 US to spare (I don't) then you have boodles to choose.
I would recommend the best horn you can find under a kilobuck, that your local repairman will support. The care and feeding of the horn is easily as important as any other factor.
Pick a mouthpiece and reed, play more than three horns. Happy hunting!
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