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Flat 12ths

Author: klook
Date: 2011-10-24 23:01

Okay I've run in to a predicament I haven't had before.

I refurb alot of old Albert clarinets, I love them, I'm learning alot, its been great.

I just finished up a clarinet that didn't have a barrel with it.

Its a LP Bb clarinet. I have a box of barrels at my disposal, my usual process is measuring the bore at the upper end of the clarinet and then finding barrels that have the same bore at the bottom and are of appropriate length.

This usually works fine, I try a few mouthpieces, find a setup that plays well chromatically in tune (alot of times I can keep the green light on the tuner from top to bottom even on an old Albert!).

In this case I picked out 4 nice barrels from 64-66mm that all had a very close bore match to the top joint of the clarinet, which is .590".

I tried all the barrels with all my best mouthpieces (also matching the bore) and in every case the 12ths were flat. Some barrel/mpc combos played and sounded better but the 12ths were always 20-30 cents flat.

I first noticed my register key wasn't venting too much and I increased that but it did very little if anything.

Now, something has to up here right? The lower clarion notes are pretty close but as I go up it gets flatter and flatter.

What to check for?

thanks!

mark

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Re: Flat 12ths

Author: klook
Date: 2011-10-24 23:23

Something I should add:

Typically the clarinets I work on have the wrap around register key with the tilted little pot on the front of the clarinet being the vent.

This clarinet has the straight register key with pressed in vent.

I removed the vent to polish the bore and just pressed the tube back in. I realize now after consulting my Reg Thorpe manual that I should have installed the tube with shellac, now I wonder might my vent be slightly leaky? I have to check.

Tonight I will reinstall the vent and see what happens.

I have a hunch this has something to do with the vent, either its length or installation.

mark

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