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Re: Smooth Bore or Rough, which sounds better?

Author: Micke Isotalo ★2017
Date: 2021-06-25 12:42

Here are just some of my personal experiences.

First, as I've told also in another post here a few years ago, a friend of mine was convinced that a bore still wet from oil (not absorbed in the wood) improved his tone. I suppose that was since the oil made the bore even smoother than just polished wood itself.

I noticed the same on my clarinets, BUT only in a very special setting. That was when my Wurlitzer clarinets were still quite new and when the protective lacquer coating that Paul told about above was only partly worn off. My guess is that the oil smoothed out the roughness of the bore created by the bits of lacquer still remaining. Later, when all lacquer was polished away at an overhaul, I didn't notice any difference in the sound with an oil wetted bore compared to a dry one.

Then more recently I tried out a new Wurlitzer clarinet set, where to my surprise the bore of one of the barrels had a rough finish (thus either polished or lacquered). Initially I thought that perhaps was on purpose, for a possible improvement of tone. However, trying it out it clearly wasn't the case - it didn't sound at all as good as the other, polished and lacquered ones. The build quality of Wurlitzer clarinets is absolute top notch, but here I believe that a non-finished barrel had just mistakenly been sent to me.

I wouldn't go as far as claiming that all clarinets would benefit tonally from a smooth (or even polished) rather than rough bore, but I'm convinced that this is the case at least with Wurlitzer clarinets. After all, the tone a certain clarinet is producing is a mix of all kind of parameters - and then of course also the players tastes varies a lot, so what may suit one may not suit another.

Also Irish Flutes could be a totally different story.