The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: autospamfighter
Date: 2016-10-20 06:34
I was tuning today and saw that instead of an F#, my mouthpiece and barrel tuned a G. I am currently using a 5RV Lyre and a Vandoren Blue Box 3 Reed. Any tips to get my pitch down (I assume this is not normal).
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Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2016-10-20 06:53
I would reccomend taking a hacksaw and cutting your barrel in half to get the desired pitch.
In all seriousness though, what's more important is the pitch when you play your instrument. Are you playing sharp or flat?
-Jdbassplayer
Post Edited (2016-10-20 06:58)
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2016-10-20 09:24
It's a very common problem. A technique is to use electrical tape in the tone hole to lower the pitch. An old trick that Hans Moennig did all of the time. Also he'd undercut the holes that played flat. The tape should only cover 1/2 of the hole, closet to the mouthpiece/barrel, not towards the bell of the horn. By the way he usually tuned Bb horns with a 67mm barrel. Sadly if you use a 67mm barrel on the newer R13's you will be tuning to .435 or under. On some of the A clarinets with the Vandoren M series mouthpieces you may need a barrel as small as 64mm's if the bands and the orchestras tune around a .442. Crazy and frustrating....
So repairmen use nail polish, both clear and black. This can be OK I guess, but it's hard to keep the thickness even. The tape stays in place for years and is of course the same thickness. Kind of cool.
Find a good repairman to do the undercutting.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
Post Edited (2016-10-20 12:47)
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Author: Mojo
Date: 2016-10-20 18:00
I think Bob misunderstood the question.
MojoMP.com
Mojo Mouthpiece Work LLC
MojoMouthpieceWork@yahoo.com
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-10-21 01:13
Such a short length of tubing won't give you a stable note, so you can't expect the mouthpiece and barrel on its own as a reliable reference point when it comes to tuning.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2016-10-21 03:47
So sorry, guess I did!
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2016-10-23 17:04
It's more important how they tune on the clarinet. And make sure your tuner is tuning accuratey so that A 440 is a true A 440.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-10-23 17:19
440 if conditions are good, otherwise tune to 438 or less if it's colder than room temperature and 442+ if it's considerably warmer. But that's only possible if you aren't held to ransom by some fixed pitch instrument.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2016-10-23 17:20)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2016-10-23 18:00
autospamfighter wrote:
> I was tuning today and saw that instead of an F#, my mouthpiece
> and barrel tuned a G. I am currently using a 5RV Lyre and a
> Vandoren Blue Box 3 Reed. Any tips to get my pitch down (I
> assume this is not normal).
You haven't identified the clarinet or told us how long the barrel is. Some clarinet models are designed to use shorter barrels than the 65-67 mm ones that Buffets are designed to use. If you've got a clarinet designed to work with a 60-62 mm barrel, the 5RV Lyre and barrel alone will naturally play sharper than a 66 mm one.
This goes back to the comments that the tuning of the complete instrument is more important than the tuning of the mouthpiece and barrel by themselves.
How long is the barrel?
Karl
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