Author: I. Corry
Date: 2002-02-12 15:15
Kim is right on here. Grenadilla can be found growing in billets along the west coast of Africa and the east coast of South America. At one time, the major French and German clarinet manufacturers used to shut down production for the month of August and send selected and carefully selected employees to these locations to search for the choicest wood. (Usually, there was enough for everybody but once, during a shortage, fighting broke out between groups from Wurlitzer and Selmer which became known as the "Bore Wars," but that's another story.) They would bring the wood back in trunks, some of which were stronger than others and hence could carry the more dense (heavier), more select wood. As Kim points out, the best wood comes from the strongest trunks. Now, however, most clarinet makers buy their wood from suppliers who ship it in pallettes. This is probably the reason the wood isn't as good anymore -- it's almost impossible to tell which billets the pallettes come from and they aren't aged enough either. (Neither, sad to say are the employees.) This probably explains any problems in tone and intonation people have that can't be solved by a professional mouthpiece (i.e, one made from hard rubber which also grows in Africa and can be matched particularly well to African grenadilla both for tonal characteristics and color -- if the right dye is used).
BTW, there are a couple of professional mouthpieces in our orchestra but, when they aren't in court, one plays oboe and the other plays violin.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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