 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Meri
Date: 2001-02-23 23:00
I don't know how many of you see this, but I notice that stripping of screws seems to often happen on student- and intermediate grade instruments, while it seems to happen far less often on professional-grade instruments. At least, I have never had a stripped screw on my R-13, yet I find them fairly often on student and intermediate grade instruments, seeing other clarinetists with them regularly trying to place it back with their fingernail (and if I'm there, I offer the screwdriver, which is far easier.).
Why is this? Are screws on professional instruments just better-quality, or is it simply the use (and abuse) often placed on such instruments? Or both?
Meri
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Author: Dee
Date: 2001-02-24 00:14
I personally believe it is the difference in care that the owner exercises. Those who own professional grade instruments, even fairly young students, tend to be more interested (on the average but there are exceptions) in taking care of them the right way.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-02-24 13:26
iI always understood that a stripped screw was one where the threads were so damaged that the threads could no longer 'catch', and no matter how many times you turn it it never 'bottoms' and becomes tight to turn.
Of thousands of clarinets I have worked on I have NEVER met a stripped screw.
Here there are a couple of "repairers' who seem to deliberately loosen screw. Then the instrument has to come back sooner for further attention. Perhaps that they are so incapable of getting pad seating right that they loosen pivot point screws so that the key can float around to find a sort of pad closure.
Some "repairers" leave pivots loose because the set-up was badly manufactured, or damaged since, so that pivots jam if the screws (or rods) are tightened securely. (Here I am not writing of the pivots that are designed to be adjustable and jam in the post in any location). These "repairers" cannot be bothered, or do not know how to correct the underlying problem.
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Author: Bart Hendrix
Date: 2001-02-24 18:48
Many years ago (40+) the pads on my pre-WW II Kohlert were replaced (I was just about out of grade school at the time). Sometime after I got it back I noticed that the screw on the throat G# key was getting loose. I got out the screwdriver and found that it seemed to be stripped. I was too young and dumb at the time to follow up with the repair shop (after all, they wouldn't do anything wrong, would they?), so I learned to live with it. Years later, I determined that the threads both on the screw and in the post were in good condition. However, the threads in the post were metric and the threads on the screw were english. Aparently, the shop had lost or damaged the screw and not been able to find a correct replacement. Fortunately, the difference is slight enough and there is enough wear on the key that a small piece of cotton thread between the two sets of threads successfully corrects the problem. However, since I bacame responsible for paying the cost of repairs myself, I am much more careful about selecting my repair technician.
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2001-02-25 06:18
Pro instruments have better workmanship especially the posts. If the inside thread of the post is made larger to allow for plating and the plating goes then the diameter of the thread in the post becomes too big. A fairly rare occurence but more likely on a cheaper instruments.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-02-25 11:57
In my post I was thinking of pivot screws as opposed to rods, or 'steels'.
Occasionally I have come across threads on RODS that do not 'catch' . This is usually on very old, worn instruments or ones from mainland China. The problem can be solved crudely but efffectively if you have suitable equipment (like smooth, parallel-jaw pliers) by squeezing the threaded part of the rod to make it oval. Be careful not to overdo it. (I often do this on the small C key of a Gemeinhardt flute, simply to give enough friction in the thread to provide location security which is needed for the end of the rod which is the upper pivot for the Bb key.)
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