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RE: ? C Clarinet

Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2002-03-10 18:18

Hi Gary,

I think Chuck has you diagnosed correctly.

You can try a longer barrel and you might be able to find a mouthpiece that lowers your pitch somewhat. However, while these may lower the pitch of your instrument, you may find that its intonation is hopeless at the lower level. Of course, you might get lucky.

The problem is that a properly made high pitch instrument isn't just a low pitch instrument with a short barrel. If the instrument was made properly, the relative location and size of its tone holes will be slightly different than for a low pitch instrument. A good repair tech might be able to tune the instrument by a combination of adding a longer barrel and then adjusting the size of some tone holes to bring the instrument in tune with itself but the cost may be more than it's worth.

If the instrument were mine, I would recognize and enjoy it for what it is -- an antique high pitch instrument. You could use it for solo clarinet works. If a longer barrel doesn't work, trying to make the clarinet something that it isn't will likely ruin it and disappoint you. If you really have no use for it as a high-pitch instrument, you might want to consider selling it to someone who does and putting the money towards a newer low-pitch clarinet.

Best regards,
jnk

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