 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2016-09-01 20:52
Over the last two years I've broken the spring for the LH sliver key on both my A and my Bb R13 instruments. Two days ago the one on my A broke again. So two instruments, two years, same spring, three breaks.
Yesterday my repair tech replaced the A spring again, but didn't charge me, which was nice but I don't think he was responsible. He's trained and certified and has fixed woodwinds for many years, and I think he's doing it right, and the result seems good with no looseness or other noticeable problem. It's the standard blue steel spring stock that comes in an assortment box of standard clarinet sizes.
That incidence of breakage seems high. Each time, I was playing when the break occurred. Both the tech and I are perplexed.
Any ideas?
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-09-01 21:23
Blued steel springs often break without warning and usually at the most inconvenient time - most will break when they rust.
Also the hardness of the steel can make them prone to breaking if they haven't been tempered correctly after hardening.
Having a sharp bend in them can also cause them to break, so they should be curved in a gentle arc along their length and then straighten out once hitched up to their spring catch.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2016-09-03 03:16
Those particular springs have to be very short, which results in relatively high deflections which increases the stresses of the spring.
As Chris notes a gentle curve with no sharp bends is important.
Your tech may also have been given a bad batch of springs.
Finally make sure that the venting, whilst adequate for tone and pitch, is not excessive to ensure minimum deflection possible.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2016-09-03 05:40
Thanks people, some good thoughts.
GBK, I actually have wondered how often I use that key. The answer is, quite a lot. Besides scales and patterns, I practice a number of fairly difficult etudes in whatever keys, so I have need for that key frequently.
I will mention that before I broke the spring the first time, on my A instrument, I was practicing a technique that might have contributed to the break. Since several of the Bb notes on the instrument (throat, clarion, and altissimo) can be tricky when sequenced with some other notes, I dreamed up a "Bb exercise". Part of it involves clarion Bb slurring between alternat fingerings, trying to make the transitions as inaudible as possible: first by alternating lh sliver and rh side, then adding the forked fingering into the rotation (both directions), and finally adding the trill fingering (TO oxx! ooo), so four fingerings alternating as smooth as possible. Why? Oh never mind.
Anyway, taking those four fingerings in different orders led me to experiment with sliding from the lh pinky fingering to the trill fingering - and back. Those are both doable, sorta. BUT, when sliding off the lh sliver key makes it close suddenly with a snapping sound. I sort of ignored that.
Until, that is, I had the first lh sliver spring break. After getting it fixed, I decided not to pursue that slide any further, to avoid such sudden snappy closures of that key. BUT, my stupid fingers had "learned" to do it, and a couple times in sight reading or playing not fully learned music, I'd mistakenly play the wrong clarion Bb, namely the lh sliver one, and then need to slur to Ab or G or something just below - and that finger would slide off that key again and I'd hear that snappy closure. This was rare.
But that's what I was doing when I broke the second spring, this time on my Bb clarinet. So-o-o, I undertook to ban that technique altogether, to unlearn it, as it were, and I've been pretty successful with that annoying chore. It means favoring the lh-side key clarion Bb's more. However, despite that, the third break of the spring happened, on the A clarinet again, this time without doing the evil slide or having done it for a long time. So a fairly new spring did break with fairly normal use.
My tech didn't think that slide would cause the break, but now he's not so sure it mightn't. I think this is a great example of the kind of mess one can make while self-teaching.
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