 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Woodchuck28
Date: 2014-12-13 05:10
My daughter, who plays clarinet, was fooling around with her cork grease tube and the whole stick is sticking out. Neither one of us can get it to go back in. Any suggestions?
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Author: kilo
Date: 2014-12-13 05:54
It's not that dissimilar from trying to get toothpaste back in the tube. You could try softening it up and stuffing it into the tube, warming the tube in hot water to melt the grease, then letting it cool so the the core of the grease is hard enough to engage with the screw thread of the tube.
Much easier, much quicker, and much more practical is to just buy a new tube of cork grease and chalk the loss up to experience. You can still use the tubeless cork grease, just stuff it into a container or plastic bag and apply it with your fingertip.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2014-12-13 20:08
Only put a very, very small amount of cork grease on the Corks. Pretend like the cork grease cost $100, so use sparingly.
There are very soft brands of cork grease which I don't like at all. Vandoren have stiff cork grease which won't as easily gum up. "the Doctors" Cork grease also is tough.
Squishy cork grease will do just that.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2014-12-14 00:04
I agree with David, a minimal amount can spread over the cork and do the job.
What job, did someone ask? No? I'm sure I heard . . .
Well, I think that not only do you want to protect the corks from wear and drying out, you also want to avoid assembling the instrument with rotational binding in the joints. Such binding must add tension, which I think changes for the worse how the instrument vibrates. I've never seen or heard this theory stated elsewhere, it's "original", so beware. But it seems to make sense, and over time I've gotten the subjective impression that my instruments sound better if the corks are properly greased.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-12-14 02:45
Adding extra stress to the keywork is something you should avoid at all costs, so suitably greased (not overdone or not done at all) tenon corks will allow the joints to be fitted together with little risk of bending anything.
Also how you hold the joints is critical as holding them incorrectly will usually end up putting the E/B and F/C keys out of regulation which is a very common problem. So hold the lower joint in your RIGHT hand with your palm facing downwards and placing your thumb over both the E/B and F/C pad cups holding them closed while your fingers wrap around the back of the joint. Holding the pad cups closed will prevent them being bent during assembly.
Hold the top joint in your LEFT hand with the palm facing upwards and your fingers will wrap around and hold the ring keys closed which not only prevent s the ring keys being bent up, it also raised the linkage between the joints so the silencing material on the underside of the linkage doesn't get ripped off during assembly.
Q. But I'm left handed!
A. Doesn't matter - your left hand is the one that controls the upper joint and your right hand controls the lower joint, so you're simply holding the relative joint in the hand that controls that joint during playing. When is there an instance in playing when your left hand has to hold the lower joint (unless you have a very rare left handed clarinet)?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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