 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2019-11-01 16:28
In the band I'm playing in, the three older clarinet players all take time to swab the bores and dry the tenons and sockets of their instruments before putting them away. The rest are young people, all college students, and they don't do any of that. Most or all of them are studying music and play quite well. Before we oldsters get our cases closed, they're all packed up, and they've got all the stands and chairs put away, and most of them have vamoosed. I wonder how they see us.
Which reminds me of another story, and being off-topic isn't going to hold me back. I was paying for an order at the drive-through window of a fast food place, and I'd found I had the right change, so when I drove up I handed the young cashier the exact amount. As he handed me the receipt, he said he'd noticed that the only people who paid the exact amount were my age.
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2019-11-01 17:12
"...he said he'd noticed that the only people who paid the exact amount were my age..." - if asked further, he'd probably admit that we're also the only group which uses cash or knows what cash is. ;^)>>>
Fuzzy
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2019-11-01 19:52
"Before we oldsters get our cases closed, they're all packed up..."
We oldsters have been around long enough to see the bad results of not taking the time.
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2019-11-01 20:33
I pretty much gave up repairing horns a long time ago for this reason. Seeing gross horns was a turnoff. Touching these really nasty things is horrible. Didn't want to mess with repairs anymore, guess some people are pretty nasty and have no respect for their horns nor themselves? Even tone holes were often clogged up. Some players don't have their horns worked on until they don't play anymore, instead of once or twice a year you should have them checked out, cleaned of course, but not by me!
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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Author: Djudy
Date: 2019-11-01 21:08
Pretty much the same topo here except it's the director of our little orchestra that is to blame. He's a trumpetist, not young but much yourger than me, and has classes again after general rehearsal so he's always shooing us out the door. Me and another (older) clarinetist are always the last to leave as we do a thorough wipe down before closing up. We just hunker and swab and collect black looks. There's a lot of things people don't get about clarinets from the little I've seen.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2019-11-01 22:27
I have my own personal axe to grind. I have known several folks who leave their instruments assembled on a stand at home, play a little and put it back on the stand completely assembled. This is exponentially worse than not wiping moisture that will dry in a few minutes anyway.
Let the kids just play. But don't EVER leave your axe together for days on end.........shame on you (whoever you are)!
................Paul Aviles
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Author: Trondeh
Date: 2019-11-02 01:44
Forgive me my ignorance, but why is it so bad leaving my instrument on a stand at home? I swab it before putting it back on the stand, is that still bad?
Trond
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2019-11-02 03:15
Trond, assuming you swab AND dry out the sockets and tenons before you put it back on the stand you won't risk wood damage. However the tenon corks will be under constant compression which shortens their useful life very considerably as the cork never gets a chance to relax to it's original dimensions.
Properly looked after tenon corks ( regularly greased with a GOOD cork grease ) can last 10 - 20 years or even more.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2019-11-02 08:22
No that's not true! What is cork? I'll tell you. Cork is wood. Wood expands when it gets wet. So you compress the wood in a tiny space and allow it to slowly relax from that point.....and get smaller.
Honestly now (and you don't have to admit this on the Board), is there a lot of wiggle between joints when you first pick it up to play for the day? Do you wind up replacing tenon corks a lot? Ever pick up your horn and have the lower joint and bell fall to the floor?
I've had my horn for almost a year and it assembles and disassembles the same as it did on the first day.
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: Trondeh
Date: 2019-11-02 20:45
Thank you. I have never thought of that having the clarinet assembled for days could permanently compress the cork. I guess I have been lucky since I have not really had a problem with the joints, at least not as bad as anything falling apart :-)
Trond
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Author: dorjepismo ★2017
Date: 2019-11-02 21:08
You do tend to look at things differently when your parents paid for them.
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Author: JTJC
Date: 2019-11-03 01:08
Around 1974 I was having lessons with John McCaw, then principal clarinet of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. He was very interested in the technical aspects of the clarinet and mouthpieces. I believe he taught Louis Rossi at the a
Royal College of Music and also stimulated his interest in the mechanical/technical aspects of the clarinet. John always kept a fully assembled clarinet on a stand next to his fireplace. He used to use it during lessons, rather than get his ‘working’ clarinets out. He was practising on it when I arrived for a lesson one day. However, I never saw that fire alight.
Also, once after a lesson with John I was pulling through my clarinet, from the top joint to bottom (and out the bell). He noticed and pointed out I was doing it the wrong way. He said I should do it from bell to upper joint. I told him there was a reason for doing it the way I had, but couldn’t recall it at the time. I later remembered, it was Thea King who had told me to do it that way. The idea being that the top joint was the wetter, so by pulling through from that joint to the relatively drier lower joint you were getting a more equal distribution of the moister in the wood.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2019-11-03 01:45
I am a great admirer of Thea's playing, but have to disagree with her theory on swabbing an instrument from the top.
Pulling through from the bell allows the swab to gently compress as it enters the cone of the bore.
Pulling through from the top means that the swab (which, however slightly, is actually a bit abrasive) is constantly being compressed over the sharp edge of the top tenon, and over the years can wear the bore at this point.
The point about redistributing the moisture is a red herring as the minute amount left on the surface of the bore after swabbing will evaporate in minutes.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2019-11-03 03:52
Though players may never definitively agree on which direction to swab, the USA website of the repair techs Lohff and Pfeiffer favor the top-down approach but for a different reason:
"Always pull the swab [they recommend a soft silk one] from the top to the bottom. The narrowest spot in the clarinet is where the register tube sticks into the bore. If a pull through swab gets stuck into the bore, you will always be able to pull it out if you started at the top."
Post Edited (2019-11-03 04:50)
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Author: Djudy
Date: 2019-11-03 19:33
OK ! After a minor (and thankfully resolved) fright with the swab stuck in the Silver King I can see the logic of top-to-bell for a metal clarinet. I managed to delicately work it free and out and now use a fine silk swab on that horn, and a better microfiber swab on the wooden ones, done joint by joint.
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Author: JTJC
Date: 2019-11-04 02:23
Caroline, I only offered those recollections as anecdotes around the subject of clarinet care and well known players’ practices.
I do agree the distribution of moisture by that method would be minimal. I also agree about the wear to the bore as the pull through is compressed. However, something similar must surely happen the other way, as the pull through expands when it comes out. Thats one argument against separating joints before you pull through - more bore wear at the exit points. In fact, I pull through both ways each time as I find parts of the bore aren’t dried going one way, most notably in the top joint in area between speaker tube and the left thumb hole.
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Author: lmingr
Date: 2019-11-04 12:48
I'm still new at this but I would clean my instrument before i leave my class even to the put of wearing gloves and wiping my fingerprint off! (if i have time)
If I was rushed to get out of the studio,I would do a good cleaning when i get home I agree you need to respect your instrument, or else how will it perform well? It's not cheap and I don't understand how people do that to their instrument?
Bob is right about how gross at times the instrument is. My friend who's a sax technician really is so turn off when instruments are send back to him within 3 months of use,and the condition is quite bad!
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Author: Luuk ★2017
Date: 2019-11-04 16:52
On the topic of 'leaving your clarinet assembled after playing': when I bought my Selmer Signature early this year, it came in the so-called Selmer Prisme case. This case only accepts a clarinet with the bell attached.
It's a shame; I had to buy another case.
Regards,
Luuk
Philips Symphonic Band
The Netherlands
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Author: MichaelW
Date: 2019-11-04 18:04
More important , at least in my opinion, than the direction of pulling through, is drying the tenons and especially the tenon sockets: As mentioned by Caroline Smale in another thread, the end grain on tenons and in sockets is much more (water) absorbent than the straight grain. So I always disassemble the clarinet and wipe out the sockets with a tissue handkerchief.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2019-11-11 03:41
Funny......ha HA!
Of course we all know that will fry your microwave.
.................Paul Aviles
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