 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: efsf081
Date: 2013-08-09 16:45
It is a clarinet debuted at 2013 NAMM Show. I just find this clarinet from internet and feel surprise.
The upper joint is made by Grenadilla Insert injected ABS resin. Yamaha said it make the clarinet "Less prone to cracking and yielding better sound production."
But I really don't understand. Why the barrel of 450NM still made by Grenadilla? A barrel more easy been affected by the moisture.
Any one tried this clarinet and any comment?
Thanks.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/productDetail/productDetail.jsp?entSkuId=H93179000000000&src=3WDTWXX&CA_6C15C=1896869076
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-08-10 00:55
The ad is 99-44/100% puff and contains many idiotic claims.
As far as the writer seems willing to be understood, the Duet+ is Yamaha's standard step-up wood clarinet with the bore of the upper joint reamed out and filled with a plastic liner. This is claimed to reduce cracking. There is a hint that the plastic lining also goes up the tone holes to the surface.
In fact, the liner will undoubtedly increase cracking, because the wood and the plastic swell at different rates, and plastic does not swell when exposed to water, as wood does. Anyone who has seen old flutes with the head joint tuning sleeves lined with a metal tube will know that the wood over the liner cracks 100% of the time.
This is definitely not a "marching clarinet" as they claim. It's all wood except for the upper joint liner.
They claim that silver plating is allergenic but nickel is not. In fact, it's exactly the opposite. At any rate, nickel plating, particularly on a step-up instrument, has nothing to do with providing "a more clear and focused tone."
I've never played a clarinet on which the low notes were "soft sounding," at least where the pads were sealing.
A 65 mm. barrel has nothing to do with producing "a focused tone and quick response."
Power forging is in no way "hi-tech," but is used everywhere. And power-forged keys are not more ergonomic. In fact, Buffet's old hand-filed keys let their craftsmen produce ergonomic shapes that power forging cannot.
Valentino pads are no more waterproof than bladder pads, and do not "provide increased resonance along with a more mature tone quality to the sound."
If anything, Yamaha's all-plastic model will be more consistent than the hybrid Duet+.
The Duet+ is undoubtedly a very good clarinet, but that is due to good design and computer-controlled manufacturing, and not to the ridiculous claims in their ad.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2013-08-10 05:50
Top joints are far more likely to crack than barrels, so having a resin lined top joint bore will considerably reduce this happening. I thought the Duet+ lined bore was only available on Yamaha oboes, but good to see they offer clarinets with it too.
Schreiber have been doing this on their oboes (made for Buffet) for decades now and have taken the idea directly from bassoon manufacture, although they also line the lower joint bore which makes the socket weak and there's no real need to line the lower joint as they seldom crack. What I find odd is that Schreiber never offered the E11 clarinet with a resin lined top joint bore in all this time.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-08-10 14:39
Heckel has been lining their wing joints with, I think, Bakelite for over a century.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2013-08-10 15:44
Bassoons usually have ebonite (hard rubber) lined descending bores which is machined to the correct taper and glued into the joint, then the toneholes are drilled and the bore reamed up to the correct size. Schreiber was a former Heckel employee who set up his own bassoon firm which later made other woodwinds besides bassoons.
I think they were the first company to use a liquid resin (they called it either duralast or duracast) to line the desending bores with rather than glueing a preformed lining into the bore. If you look at a Schreiber bassoon you'll see the lined bore also runs a little way up the ascending bore if you remove the metal U-tube, so the risk of rotting is significantly reduced.
Something I saw a few years back was a Heckel bassoon which had been completely rebuilt and modernised at the Schreiber factory, so the colour was the same deep crimson of modern Schreibers and the keywork was modern Schreiber. They used the liquid resin to reconstruct the butt joint which had either seriously rotted or was acidentally damaged, so when the bands were removed the resin and mesh used to rebuild it was visible. The Heckel logos were still visible through the crimson varnish, although they were feint through age and refinishing.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-08-11 02:19
Ebonite. Yeah, that's the ticket. Bassoons have had plastic wing joints forever, and Loree makes plastic upper joints for oboes, which Richard Woodhams played as principal in Philadelphia for many years. He now plays a Yamaha. They make at least one top model, the YOB-841 L, with a plastic-lined upper joint, presumably like the YCL-450NM Duet+ clarinet.
I don't know about Schreiber bassoons, but Heckels have the wing-joint tone holes (which are drilled on a severe diagonal) lined with brass inserts that stick into the bore to keep condensation away from the wood.
See the bassoon horror photo at http://web.archive.org/web/20040214170201/http://www.corkpad.com/dont.html.
Ken Shaw
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