 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2012-07-26 20:45
When you look and touch the bore of the clarinet, how much shine should it have? How smooth should it feel? I gave my newly acquired used instrument a fresh coat of oil tow days ago according to the method suggest by David Pino. The bottom section still feels a shade smoother than the upper joint. The barrel seems like it might use another coat too. I'll wait another month for that but still, how much smoothness are we aiming for?
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2012-07-26 23:22
The bore surface shouldn't look like a mirror and it shouldn't look like sandpaper. Honestly if you look down the bore and the surface looks reasonably smooth then it doesn't need anything. People have a tendency to go overboard with bore oil. On the clarinets that I play most I usually only find the need to oil them perhaps once a year and even that may not really be necessary.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2012-07-26 23:37
Oiling the bore should be done with a non drying oil (e.g. almond) that permeates a small distance into the wood and any residue is removed at the next swabbing.
The oil is to help protect the bore from ingress or grain swelling caused by moisture it is not a varnish to coat the surface of the bore and make it shiny.
That's why one should avoid linseed oil etc which hardens on the wood.
Protecting the bore this way and regular pulling through can over time increase the sheen on the bore but many of the best sounding clarinets I have tried have not had particularly glossy bore finishes and often quite coarse grain too.
This is not the same as a rough bore caused by excess moisture and neglect which should be avoided at all costs.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2012-07-27 02:23
The cheapest plastic student clarinets have very smooth and shiny bores. Does that make them sound nice?
My 1930s Kohlert bass clarinet has a rather rough bore. It sounds terrific.
There are many contrary examples of smooth-bored clarinets that sound great and rough-bored instruments that sound awful. Bottom line, it really doesn't matter (much, if at all).
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-07-27 09:09
Don't Wurlitzer lacquer the bores on their clarinets?
In the hands of the top German clarinettists, they sound terriffic!
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2012-07-27 13:36
At the same time, Chris, I could take one of those Wurlitzer lacquered-bore clarinets and sound absolutely awful on it. So I'm not sure what to make of all this fine data....
![[whoa]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie10.gif)
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2012-07-27 14:18
Over many years,I have looked at bores with 3x magnification on my clarinets. They varied considerably but bore no obvious relationship to the meaniful characteristics of the instruments. My Robert A had a bore as smooth as glass, and my VSP was rough by comparison, etc, etc.
richard smith
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2012-07-27 14:57
Yeah, Chris, the Wurlitzer bore is lacquered, then 'broken in' by the player for about a year, then sent back to Neustadt for a final polishing.
Players who have been through the whole process tell me that once the final polish is done, the horn really sings at a different level. My 1951 Fritz Wurlitzers were polished before I was born, though, so I haven't had the experience.
What I can say is that those horns last a very long time, and perhaps the lacquer/bore polishing has something to do with the longevity.
Eric
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
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Author: Buster
Date: 2012-07-27 16:16
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Engineering_Acoustics/Clarinet_Acoustics scroll down to "2.4.3. Wall losses"
The "texture" of the wall does enter into the equation, though the math is quite complex and we are left wondering:
Though the hard and fast numbers of the whole lot can be computed, how can that audible effect be interpreted?
Is the audible difference between 2 identical clarinets, save varying bore textures (quite an impossibility), detectible to the human ear? That requires some knowledge of minimum threshold levels of our aural system.
Do I personally know the answers to these questions? Nope. It seems an aside to the heart of matters.
It appears to me that there are far more important factors at play and any positive (audible) ends be attributed to the clarinetist and not the bore texture.
Likewise, there are those that come up after a concert and ask "What equipment are you using?" only to attribute the good you've contributed to the musical discussion to the hand-reamed mouthpiece sitting lifelessly in your case.
What is the most important most important part of a car?
-Jason
Post Edited (2012-07-27 16:18)
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