Author: kawallace91
Date: 2010-05-23 23:13
I've been playing on a Buffet E-11 for almost 4 years now, and yesterday I went and tried out a bunch of R-13s. We've narrowed it down to 2 that I've taken home with me to try out further. One thing the shop owner and my professor kept talking about was humidifying clarinets. He even stuck one of those Dampits, which I've never used before, inside one of the cases. I'm really not as familiar as I should be with how humidity affects wooden clarinets, but I do live in the New England area of the US, so we get four distinct seasons and some pretty unpredictable weather in between. It's starting to turn to summer now.
This is where I started getting confused. Some of the clarinets had really loose rings. On one of them, you can actually spin the ring around the end of the bell, and the one on the top of the bell and one on the barrel could actually be pulled off easily. On the other one (the one he put the Dampit in), the end of the bell was the only really loose one. Now, putting the Dampit in should make the wood expand, making the rings tighter, correct? Or am I way off? lol
Sorry if my post isn't very clear, but I guess I'm interested in hearing anything about humidity, clarinets, and loose rings! I'm just a bit nervous because I'm sort of on my own with these two clarinets since the shop is about an hour and a half away, and my professor is out of town (although I have contact info for both of them). My professor and I are going to get together again to make the ultimate decision. I just hope I can handle this whole humidifying thing correctly so a) I can make an accurate decision over which clarinet I like best and b) I don't cause any damage to either of them!
I can say though, every R-13 I tried felt and sounded much better than my E-11, so I think anything will be an improvement!!
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
