 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: GAA1993
Date: 2012-03-01 02:24
I know clarinets can be made out of a number of different materials: plastic, grenadilla wood, rosewood, metal, rubber. What are the affects of making a clarinet out of other types of materials? The main materials I am wondering about are PVC, bamboo, and mesquite wood. PVC because it would be interesting to just go to the local Home Depot and make a clarinet out of materials found there. Bamboo because...well, it is a reed, but it might be interesting if you find an old enough piece of it that it would be sufficiently large, and we have a good deal of it nearby. Mesquite because it is an incredibly hard wood, I've recently come into a fairly large chunk, and I figured I should use it for something other than firewood since it is such a sturdy wood. Also, what other materials are clarinets made of? Can clarinets be custom ordered to be made of certain materials?
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2012-03-01 03:41
Over the years clarinets have been made out of many different material. Very early clarinet were made from boxwood but this has largely fallen out of favor for anything other than reproduction instruments. Other woods that have been used are ebony, African blackwood (most common today and often mislabeled as grenadilla), rosewood, cocobolo, and I'm sure plenty of others that I don't know about.
Various plastics are commonly used to make lower cost clarinets. I suspect that some type of PVC has been used at some point.
Another common material is hard rubber, often referred to by the trade names ebonite, resonite, etc.
In the past clarinets made from metal were common. Most were plated brass but some of the better ones were made from nickle silver or even sterling silver.
You most likely could talk a custom clarinet maker into making an instrument out of almost any kind of material provided that it was suitable for the task and the wad of cash you handed them was large enough.
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Author: kilo
Date: 2012-03-01 12:34
Strength, hardness, and density are desired characteristics for wooden instruments but durability isn't the only concern. The material must machine easily, not be too brittle, hold fastenings securely, and maintain dimensional stability over a wide range of temperature and humidity. If you find a custom clarinet maker and go through with this project I hope you'll share the results with us. And if all you end up with is a C.S.O. at least you can grill a steak over it.
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Author: jbutler ★2017
Date: 2012-03-01 19:45
Has anyone tried to turn mesquite on a lathe? I surely wouldn't want to try.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2012-03-02 16:53
Mesquite would make your Bar B Q taste great when you decide to burn it. ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: BartHx
Date: 2012-03-02 19:43
You seem to talk about using PVC and bamboo, in part, because they come in the form of tubes. You need to keep in mind that a clarinet is not a true cylinder. The dimensions and finish of the bore along with the wall thickness (beyond density) all impact the usability of the instrument. That's not to say that those materials could not be cut into strips and glued together to make a solid block from which to start, but that seems like a lot of work. In that event, you would certainly want to consider the porosity of the bamboo and needing to find some way to seal that. On the other hand, it might be fun to play with those materials as tubes to see what kind of instrument you can invent. I did use PVC to make a trombone like instrument which I used in my physics classes when we got to the unit on sound. I am ashamed to admit that I am currently unable to remember the name of a famous French horn player who played Mozart with a mouthpiece, funnel, and garden hose.
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Author: BartHx
Date: 2012-03-05 02:21
Thanks for the reminder and especially for the link. I used to have a recording of the Hoffnung Symphony until I loaned it to a friend who lost it.
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