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Re: Basics in caring for wooden clarinets

Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2011-10-21 13:33

In addition to storing the instrument at reasonable temperatures as the others have mentioned you will want to monitor the humidity as well. Typically you want to maintain about 40-50% relative humidity in the room you store you clarinet or at the very least within the clarinet case. During the winter in the US it is very common for the indoor humidity levels to drop well below this. Up in New England where I live it is common for the relative humidity to drop below 20% in the winter.

Lower humidity levels will cause the wooden joints on your clarinet to start drying out and the wood will shrink. This will cause the tenon rings to get loose and you will be at great risk of cracking your tenon sockets if you assemble an instrument with loose rings.

My solution was to buy a small room humidifier and set it up in the room where I store all of my instruments. If I keep the door to the room closed the humidifier will maintain the humidity level in the room at a reasonable level and I haven't had any problems with loose ring since.

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