 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2021-06-08 04:40
I'm working on an old Penzel-Mueller currently. During the cleaning process I've removed a substantial build-up of crud from the tone holes, enough to reduce their effective diameter. The owner tells me that the instrument has always had tuning issues. To what extent could this be a part of the problem?
Thanks.
Tony F.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2021-06-08 05:13
It can become a big deal. Often the crud that accumulates from inside the bore adheres on the north side of the tone holes - the side towards the mouthpiece. That in effect repositions the hole lower down on the instrument, and the pitches it controls are thereby flattened.
A young percussionist in our community band also played clarinet, so on a couple pieces he'd sit in the clarinet section. He was terribly out of tune with the rest of the section and also with himself. I looked at his instrument, a decent older clarinet, and the holes were badly caked with crud. He got a good tech to clean it up, and that alone fixed most of his intonation difficulties.
Most years I only play with others during the summer, so it's easy for me to lazily defer cleaning tone holes until spring. After such an annual cleaning, the pitches and response change so noticeably that it messes me up, and it takes a day or so of practice to get used to it.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2021-06-08 06:21
Does it play better in tune with the crud removed? If the tuning is improved, the crud must have been part of the problem.
I guess it depends on what exactly the tuning problems are/were. I don't think obstructed tone holes would cause general flatness or sharpness. Individual notes could certainly be flattened by reduced venting from dirt. Also loss of tone quality on the notes in question.
Karl
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2021-06-08 06:43
Well actually............
I was in the shop of a local oboe repair guy and he was the process of fine tuning an oboe. He just used a layer of nail polish on the under cutting to lower the pitch of that tone hole's note. It affects the UPPER register more than the lower one and that can be part of the fine tuning process as well.
I did ask if different color nail polish changes the color of the note..........he almost found that funny.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2021-06-08 09:31
It can make a huge difference, to both tuning and response.
A few players felt like they got a new clarinet after the tone holes were cleaned.
The dirt and grease that come from players' fingers are usually relatively easy to clean. The worst types are the combination of swab shedding and hardened whatever comes out of a player's mouth, what I call "tone hole bird nests", mostly building up at the bottom the tone holes, and often can't be removed with regular methods like a pipe cleaner, ear bud and a degreaser/soap alone.
I remember one player in particular who had her clarinet's tone holes cleaned a few times by someone, using a cleaner and ear buds. It made a small improvement, but for years she felt the clarinet was a little stuffy and flat. She even got an extra barrel to hopefully improve it. Only after much more thorough cleaning the problem was gone and it was as good as any clarinet.
Post Edited (2021-06-09 08:22)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2021-06-08 20:15
I had a Leblanc clarinet in which was really stuffy in the LH notes and especially stuffy in the throat notes. I let the owner try my Leblanc LL and the difference between then was like night and day. I removed the throat G# and A keys and the toneholes were really occluded with dried fluff and grease that accumulated over time.
I removed the build-up and showed her what was stuck in there as it was reducing the tonehole diameter by almost half. Once removed and the keys put back on, the throat G# and A were as clear as day. More recently I overhauled a pair of Buffet Prestiges and the owner used a BG pullthrough which left a lot of yellow fluff built up in the top joint toneholes.
The same amount of fluff building up in the largest toneholes has very little effect and usually gets built up around the edge where the undercutting meets the bore, but that same amount built up in the much smaller toneholes on the top joint will have a massive effect on the tone quality and tuning and is something that's addressed whenever any instrument is in for a service as it's not easy to see while all the keys are on.
With undercut toneholes, removing the build-up is much harder as you have to go in at an angle or use an angle-headed tool (a bent cotton bud/Q-tip) to remove it.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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