 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: September
Date: 2016-04-23 00:46
Long story short: I live in the middle of no-where, play in a small amateur ensemble, and recently found a bass clarinet in our storage. I've wanted to try my hand at the bass clarinet ever since I saw one played live at the age of twelve, so naturally - I took it home.
So far, the only sound it produces is a pitched sqeak. Moreover, the sound when I blow into the instrument (middle G, well, fingering) is pretty much the same as when I blow into just the mouthpiece and the neck - though the pitch DOES respond when I try different fingerings.
My question, then, is if I'm the one doing something wrong, or if this is a symptom of something wrong with the instrument? It's probably been untouched for close to a decade, but it seems to be in a good shape, with no leaks or cracks that I can see. The only thing that comes to mind is the ligature, which looks like it belongs to an alto sax - it's too small for the mouthpiece, and just barely keeps together when I loosen it to take off the reed. As for the source of any possible errors in playing technique, I normally play the soprano clarinet and bariton saxophone.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2016-04-23 03:29
There is far more to go wrong with the mechanism of a bass clarinet than with a soprano.
Don't waste time speculating but get it looked over by a competent repair man.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-04-23 04:59
What make is it?
If you're not getting much change in pitch when putting any fingers down, then there's a massive leak at the top end which could be anything such as a leaky socket, a missing or damaged pad, a bent key or rod screw, a rusty screw, a broken spring or something out of regulation.
Also check the mouthpiece to see there's no damage to the tip or side rails and the reed seals against the facing. You can use tenor sax reeds on bass clarinet, but you will need a very wide diameter ligature specifically made to fit the taper of bass mouthpieces and accommodate the reed to be sure it fits properly and will hold the reed well so it won't shift about easily. Some supposed bass clarinet ligatures aren't big enough to fit properly and are more like repackaged bari sax ligatures - bass clarinet mouthpieces are much wider in diameter compared to ebonite or plastic bari sax mouthpieces (eg. Selmer S80, Yanagisawa or Yamaha 4C bari mouthpieces).
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: September
Date: 2016-04-24 20:44
It's a Vito. The ligature is probably correct; I compared it to that of the bari sax, and it's notably bigger. The instrument has a replacement mouthpiece too, but it produces the same sound. The pitch clearly responds to different fingerings; I can play something like a "scale" on it.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2016-04-24 22:38
September -
The mouthpiece, unless it's obviously severely damaged, has nothing to do with anything, and the ligature still less.
You have a big leak at the top of the instrument -- probably a missing pad. Any repair tech will find the problem immediately. You will almost certainly need to have other work done to get it playing right.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-04-24 23:07
When you say you can play something like a scale on it, do you mean you're able to play a diatonic or chromatic scale as you'd expect, or a microtonal scale whereby putting each finger down in turn slightly flattens the open note?
There's an automatic throat Bb/speaker mechanism on the back of the top joint with two vent holes - the upper smaller vent hole is for the upper register and the lower larger vent is for throat Bb.
Neither of these vents should be open when the speaker key and thumbplate are left untouched, so check to see if either of them is open.
When you place your thumb on the thumbplate to close it, do any of the vent keys move?
The lower (larger) vent key should only open when the speaker key is held down with the thumb off the thumbplate and the upper (smaller) vent key should be fully closed.
With the thumb holding both the speaker key and the thumbplate down, only the upper (smaller) veht key should open and the lower (larger) one should be fully closed.
And while checking things at the top end, be sure the adjusting screw on the arch of the throat G# key isn't fully engaged on the throat A key - open he throat A key slowly and you should ideally feel a slight delay between it opening and then opening the throat G# key. If there's no gap between the tip of the adjusting screw and the throat A key, then the throat G# key may be held open and that will prevent you playing anything lower than an open G(sharpish). Back the adjusting screw off (anticlockwise) so there's a gap between the throat A and G# keys when you open the throat A key slowly so you can feel it.
Also check the side and trill keys to be sure the pads are closing and aren't damaged or missing. Pad mites/pad bugs can also do damage by eating the felt inside the pads (as it's made from wool) and that's fairly common with instruments stored for long periods of inactive time.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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