 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: 7magicmusic7
Date: 2011-03-18 15:55
I have Buffet R13 and it has cracked. I also tried a Leblanc...CRACK. I take good care of these clarinets-is there any way I can prevent this. I never oil my clarinet and always swab after I play. I heard a rumor about orange peels-true? Should I give it a go? Many say cracking deals a lot with climate but I never leave my clarinet in any cold environment. I do play a lot-hours every day could this increase the risk of cracks? Thanks you!
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2011-03-18 16:01
Orange peels are old news. The idea is to have some humidity in the case so it doesn't dry out, no guarantee, but it helps. Use a middle size dampit in your case kept damp or some other type of sponge thing. Also, you should break a new horn in slowly, over a month or two. Once it's broken in playing time doesn't matter at all. Some instruments will crack no matter what you do, period. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: GBK
Date: 2011-03-18 18:54
A certain percentage of clarinets are predisposed to crack, no matter what precautions you take or what the temperature/humidity/climate. Some say that cracking is more prevalent now due to the insufficient time in aging the wood. That is a real possibility.
Minimize the risks by taking prudent measures of care and maintenance.
Most students who have reported to me that their instrumet has cracked just about always mention an extreme change of temperature as the possible culprit. Thus, when coming inside it would be wise to let the instrument (in the case) warm slowly before assembling and playing it.
( Now, to play devil's advocate, there are those that say with a new clarinet - USE IT - play the $#$%&* out of it from the very beginning, with little or no break in
If an instrument is made of wood which is unstable, it is going to crack eventually, no matter how careful you are.
Isn't it better to find out during the first year, when the clarinet is warranted for cracks, rather than a few years down the road, when you would be fully responsible for the repair or replacement of the joint? )
If your clarinet cracks, get it fixed as soon as possible.
Otherwise, don't lose any sleep worrying about it.
...GBK
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Author: BartHx
Date: 2011-03-19 04:29
<"If an instrument is made of wood which is unstable, it is going to crack eventually, no matter how careful you are.">
Not necessarily true. I have a pre-WWII Kohlert in my collection which I have been using for over fifty years. During high school and college, it got used for everything -- inside or outside, marching or concert. My brother used it the same way for several years before I got it. We always oiled it with olive oil (never a mineral oil based material). It now gets The Doctor's bore oil. It has never shown any of the instabilities that we associate with an instrument being made of wood.
I suspect that the quality of wood does, in fact, have an effect on the problems we are seeing lately. However, if you use your instrument regularly, it has no problems by the end of the warranty period, and you care for it properly it doesn't have to eventually crack.
I live in the California Central Valley where the humidity is in the 15% to 20% range a large part of the time. I use a small, vented pill bottle containing a damp sponge in every case. One instrument that I got used arrived with several small cracks around the socket end of the lower joint. Now that it has been living in a humidified case, you would have to know where those cracks were in order to have a chance of finding them. And it is one of my best players.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2011-03-20 07:38
>> Not necessarily true. I have a... <<
The quote was referring to clarinets with unstable wood that would crack regardless of care. Sounds like the clarinet you mention isn't one of those at all.
After seeing many cracks I can say that so far, statistically, I haven't found the amount of playing per day on a new clarinet makes it significantly (or at all) more likely to crack.
I've had a clarinet crack while in its case, almost never played, after a couple of weeks from new. I've seen abused clarinets never crack. Any one example doesn't really mean much.
Post Edited (2011-03-20 08:03)
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Author: BartHx
Date: 2011-03-20 18:26
I guess I put in a comma where there wasn't one and misunderstood. Sorry. On the other hand, a little encouragement on the subject from time to time can't hurt. Thanks for the correction.
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Author: A Brady
Date: 2011-03-20 21:39
I've had a well-respected repair tech in NYC tell me that the stresses in the manufacturing process create the conditions in a particular instrument that can lead to cracking; they also told me that they had seen cracks in Greenline instruments that basically were in the same locations as in wooden instruments, evidently brought about by the stresses of the machining process.
Good advice to repair the crack immediately (it will become virtually invisible, and should not ultimately affect the playability of the instrument once fixed). The only downside may be a reduction in potential resale value, but we buy these instruments to play, not "flip" for short-term profit, correct?
A colleague recently had his almost-new R-13 crack in a very chilly Broadway pit; after repair, it plays (and looks) great, so humidity control will definitely help, but cracking is not entirely subject to our control.
AB
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