 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Amy Sheffield
Date: 1999-07-20 01:13
I have a buffet clarinet that is about 25 years old. The pitch is very flat. And, I was wondering if maybe its not A 440. They come out with new instruments in the pitch of A442 and i was thinking that since my horn is old, that i could be in A435 or something. Email me if you have any comments.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-07-20 01:16
25 years old is not very old at all. A435 would be much, much older. Most probably a new barrel would put you in good stead - unless, of course, you really have an A clarinet, which would be a semitone flat when compared to a Bb clarinet.
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-07-20 12:11
Mark is quite right. As far as I can determine, they haven't built clarinets to the pitch of A=435 for something like 100 years. In the first third of this century, there was High Pitch (A=456) and Low Pitch (A=440) as the usual pitches they were built to.
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Author: paul
Date: 1999-07-20 14:03
Okay, Mark's idea sounds right. So, how can this person verify tha the horn is an A or a Bb? Serial numbers won't help. There are length and width (diameter) differences between the two. What's the "standard" length (excluding the mp, from top of barrel to bottom of bell) for an A and a Bb? Ditto for the diameter, say at the top of the upper joint?
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Author: Daniel
Date: 1999-07-20 17:13
Just play a C against a tuner... if it displays a Bb then the horn is in Bb, if it's an A then it would display A.
But A-435 isn't a half step from 440. So i think it would be more obvoius than Bb vs. A.
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Author: paul
Date: 1999-07-20 17:19
I like the music based method better than the engineer's method of determining if the horn is an A or a Bb. The player would know which horn it is within a few seconds of playing it. Further, the tuner will help the player get the horn to play on target in tune.
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-07-21 02:58
The Bb clarinets are just over 26 inches in length when fully assembled with the mouthpiece and without the mouthpiece cover. The A clarinet is just over 27 inches. The length will vary slightly due to the bore diameter ratio and the mouthpiece used but not by a lot.
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