 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: t.s.
Date: 2016-09-24 00:26
I bought a vintage wooden clarinet (an Eric Petterson) some time ago to practice my repair skills on. It is now in a state where I can play test it to make final adjustments, but found out to my horror that the clarion register is 10 - 30 cents flat (with respect to the chalumeau) for the right hand notes. As I move up to the left hand notes, the tuning creeps in line with the rest of the instrument. Curiously, the altissimo is well in tune with the chalumeau.
Overall, the clarinet plays sharp. Using Vandoren B40 lyre and with the barrel pushed all the way in, the chalumeau notes are 0-30 cents sharp (A = 442 Hz). Of course, I can pull the barrel out to bring these notes more in tune, but that does nothing to correct the discrepancy of tuning between the registers.
Are there any means to correct the tuning without resorting to costly hand-tuning made by an expert? I'm having a hard time believing the clarinet would have been designed to play this way. It is a shame, really, since the sound is nice and dark, and the clarinet is mechanically in good condition.
Some measurements: barrel length 63,8 mm (bore length 25,2 mm); upper joint bore diameter 14,6 mm (cylindrical, but slightly oval); total length of the bore 573,2 mm. The clarinet came with a "Conbrio" mouthpiece (also by Eric Petterson), but the tip has broken off and gone missing. The mouthpiece bore is 14,6 mm. Although the tip is missing, it seems that the mouthpiece length would be somewhat shorter than my Vandoren.
I wonder, could it be possible that the clarinet requires that specific mouthpiece to play in tune? The measurements seem to indicate that it's volume would be smaller than the Vandoren I'm using.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2016-09-24 01:18
Many of the older French style instruments tended to have a big discrepancy between RH chalumeau and clarion.
Usually the chalameau was tuned to be sharp and the clarion more or less on pitch.
I think it was presumed easier to "lip" down the chalumeau than "lip" up the clarion.
Clarion is also a more prominently used register for important solos.
I think this discrepancy is inherant in many clarinets acoustic design. Some suggest that in earlier times the qualities of tone and response were more highly valued than just pure intonation.
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Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2016-09-24 03:59
Try an older mouthpiece with a larger bore. This problem is quite common on older clarinets and it can usuallly be fixed with the right mouthpiece.
-Jdbassplayer
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Author: Johan H Nilsson
Date: 2016-09-25 00:12
My experience is that you cannot change the twelfths of the long, right hand tones with a different barrel or mouthpiece. The short, left hand tones and the throat tones are definitely more affected. A wider bore widens the twelfths of the upper, left hand tones.
Most clarinets trade a low in-tune clarion for a flat low chalumeau.
I would suspect that the form of the bore is either badly designed or manufactured or that the wood has lost its original form.
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