Author: Elkwoman46
Date: 2011-10-21 14:27
Hi, SteveG CT, I just wrote a message to you on the other topic...thank you for saying this. As for here in the South, I will be careful in the winter, but here in the South...LOL...our indoor readings for humidity is mostly around 42- 52 even with air conditioners going and everything.
We have nights here where it is hard to breathe outside because it is so humid. Here the saying is on these days, humidity is a 1000%.
I remember I hung some clothes to dry outside under a porch roof and the most remarkable thing happened...I think the wetness attracted wetness. The floor had a pool of water all day and by the end of the day I was wringing out more water from them than I did when I hung them out. It was indeed amazing. I had to bring them inside to get them to dry.
Howbeit, I will be very careful with the clarinet in the winter because on really cold days when the heater is going, I am sure the humidity drops quite a bit...I will be watching that. Right now with the heater running, the humidity is 46.
But be advised, it sounds great for instruments, but I don't know about that.
Years ago I had a huge fascination for antique stitched samplers and studied up on them. There are very, very few samplers that survived in the South, even from the 1800's. Even linen and silk cannot survive here over time.
All this makes me wonder more about the amazing difference between woods selected for violins versus dense woods selected for clarinets.
Stradivarius violin woods vibrated amazingly and were from places in Europe, yet the dense woods (Africa mostly?) need that heavy thickness to not make our clarinets sound like some squeaky plastic recorders, yes?
So what keeps the dense wood dense? Is it humidity? Or is it necessary? Does the shrinkage of the wood hurt the sound? Does it make the sound better or worse...speaking of denseness? Does shrinkage make it more dense or not?--just lost more denseness by the shrinkage? Or the other way?
Are we comparing apples with oranges when we are talking about violin and clarinet woods? Old woods on violins for example get a better tone theoretically through the drying out process and time...what happens to old wood clarinets??? Are they better for the age or not? Tone quality? Is humidity good for clarinets in that way or not? (Not talking about loose parts though, just the wood.) Is the objective of dense woods to keep them humid or not? Just speaking of the sound elements, and the wood alone.
Finally, what is the survival rate for dense woods kept in certain climates?
Have any tests been made of where clarinets have been for a long while versus other areas, and is the sound quality affected by it over time? (Again, not talking about the temperature drops that crack them) Basically, just wondering if (clarinet) wood sound qualities change in different areas.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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