 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: in2data
Date: 2010-08-15 07:31
Hi,
Just recently found this BB and there's a lot of really good information here.
My last year of junior high 1968 my parents gave me a Noblet clarinet 8828B. It has the D in the lyre at the top of the oval Noblet emblem. I still have the D.Bonade mouthpiece it came with.
So I think from reading here and related sites it's a model 40 made before 1962. That would be about right because in Alabama at that time the older the clarinet the less it was worth and my parents never had a lot of money. Although I always received a lot of love.
But after college I put it away and have seldom played it and that really seems stupid now. Actually it was and is stupid again proving that youth is wasted on the young. It traveled with me pretty much around the world until 1993 when we settled down in Henderson, NV.
I'm fairly certain it's grenadilla wood. I'm ashamed to admit that in the last thirty years I have rarely oiled the bore, very seldom greased the tenon corks or done any other maintenance.
OK you can open your eyes now because it's still in remarkably good shape. The wood has no apparent cracks. But it does have a loose tenon joint between the upper and lower joints. That, the dry environment for the last 17 years and the lack of oil makes it almost certain that the wood has shrunken quite a bit.
Only one pad has fallen off and remarkably all of the other pads do still seal on the tone holes. The tenon ring around the outside of the bottom joint with the top joint is loose. The metal ring around the bottom of the bell is also loose.
I would like to rebuild my clarinet and I would like to do it myself. Was that a horrified gasp I just heard? Oh, that was just me. Sorry, I'll try to control my reactions to my own self delusions of grandeur.
The intention is to remove all of the keys, restore the wood , tighten the upper to lower joint tenon, replace all of the pads and then put it all back together again. OK, that does sound a lot like Humpty Dumpty.
But my primary concern is how to recondition the wood. If I put oil on it then it is definitely going to have a dramatic impact on the wood. I've read the immersion posts and others. What I'm thinking is oil it down inside and out without the keys and tenon corks and do this every day for two months using a vegetable based oil.
But the risk is the inside and out side will not expand at the same rate. That way lies the crack.
Why am I doing this? My seven year old daughter kept pestering me so much to let her play my clarinet that I finally took it out of the closet and put a reed on it and gave it to her. She actually can make the reed make a tone and not make it squeak like a pig. OK, that's my old junior high band instructor's (Mr. Prince) saying and I just remember him yelling it at me every day.
So we're going to rebuild and re-gift so to speak.
Any suggestions other than turn back while you can?
Dave
Post Edited (2010-08-15 07:32)
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Author: in2data
Date: 2010-08-15 08:28
Hi,
Actually it's how do I rehydrate the wood. Should I use some damp items in the case to get moisture back in the wood. We do have an orange tree in our back yard and could do the Ridenour orange peel method.
Dave
Post Edited (2010-08-15 08:39)
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Author: DougR
Date: 2010-08-15 13:11
I'll be interested to hear how this goes for you, since I have an identical clarinet (and have had it for slightly longer than you've had yours) that has been sitting in its case all these years. I've oiled it probably five times during the last 40 years, and played it intermittently for one period in the 90s before I got my R13, but other than that, it's just sat in the case. Of course, I'm on the east coast, land of 110% summertime humidity (or so it seems at times) and will be interested to hear what kind of advice you get from someone in a dryer climate.
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Author: jasperbay
Date: 2010-08-15 19:01
IMHO; Your only danger point is the loose tenon ring in the middle joint. Assembling the clarinet at that joint with new, tighter, cork, could crack the wood under that loose ring.
Glue the pad back in,oil the bore, oil the outside, blow some moist breath thru the clarinet , or play it for short periods occasionally for a week or two, to "aclimate" it to the way it will be used for the next couple of years, then 'fix' the loose ring by wicking in a couple drops of superglue, and only then install the new tigher cork.
You shouldn't have any trouble, I've revived dozens of old grenadilla clarinets, not one has cracked.
I wouldn't even consider the dissasembly and emersion ideas, that technique has been largely discredited, check other similar threads on this site to confirm.
Clark G. Sherwood
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