 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Funfly
Date: 2014-01-02 01:07
As I get keener and my pursuit of clarinet knowledge far exceeds my ability ;-) I have a question raised by my frequent YouTube viewings.
Well two things actually;
1. I often see top clarinettists play on clarinets that are red colour, can you tell me about these as I have only ever seen black(ish) or dark wood ones presumably made from Grenadilla?
2. I also see a lot of clarinets with a bulging barrel. Mine (Yamaha) is pretty straight and the Buffet ones seem straight as well. Do these bulges reflect a different internal shape or is there some other reason for this?
Mart
P.S. Happy New Year
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Author: qualitycontrol
Date: 2014-01-01 20:26
Red coloured clarinets are made from cocobolo (or rosewood) instead of grenadilla. I think these woods are fairly similar to the grenadilla, belonging to the same genus of tree.
Bulging (or fatboy) barrels are increasingly common. Outer shape has nothing to do with the inner shape of the bore. The only reasonable reason I've heard given for owning these barrels (other than just for the look) is that since they have more mass to store temperature they take longer to cool down. Since a warmer clarinet plays sharper, once you've warmed up your clarinet these barrels help keep your intonation stable, for example if you are playing A and Bb clarinets and one is going to be set aside for a long time before playing it again.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-01-01 20:30
Grenadilla can be any colour from a dark reddish brown through to jet black.
Rosewood, kingwood and cocobolo clarinets are all varying shades of brown through to deep crimson (although cocobolo can turn black and look like grenadilla, but is easy to tell as they smell differently).
Patricola and other makers regularly use rosewood for their clarinets.
As far as barrels go, the outside shape isn't any reflection of the bore shape - the thicker barrels will retain heat better than thin barrels.
There are all manner of outer shapes and bore shapes and diameters with custom made barrels depending on the personal preference of the player.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2014-01-02 02:13
I have a LeBlanc that came with a regular shaped barrel and a fatboy. I've played the clarinet with both barrels in front of two different teachers (at two different times) and both said the sound produced by the fatboy is very different from the sound produced by the normal barrel, with the fatboy being the one they say produces the richest, warmest sound. Both barrels would have been about the same temperature because I'd just walked in for my lesson each time. So there's got to be something else the fatboy does beside store temperature for longer. I'm NOT an expert at this...this is just my observation and experience.
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2014-01-02 03:16
Roxann wrote:
> I have a LeBlanc that came with a regular shaped barrel and a
> fatboy. I've played the clarinet with both barrels in front of
> two different teachers (at two different times) and both said
> the sound produced by the fatboy is very different from the
> sound produced by the normal barrel, with the fatboy being the
> one they say produces the richest, warmest sound.
I suspect that the difference in sound is almost entirely due to slight differences in the bore of each barrel.
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Author: cyclopathic
Date: 2014-01-02 19:14
SteveG_CT wrote:
> I suspect that the difference in sound is almost entirely due
> to slight differences in the bore of each barrel.
maybe not entirely. The traditional or "vase" shape barrel would have just enough material to resonate within audible range (with lowest harmonic in 1-5,000Hz range). Fatboy will be too fat for that as frequency will increase ^4. This is from running the properties of commonly used woods (grenadilla, cocobolo, rosewood) through resonance formula.
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Author: jenthemusician
Date: 2014-01-03 20:41
Thanks for posting this question, because I've been wondering about the giant barrel thing too.
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2014-01-05 05:38
Contrary to what I stated above, I have the MoBa rather than the Fatboy. The Kessler website says this about the MoBa: "Backun MoBa barrels were designed in collaboration with famed musician Ricardo Morales. These barrels use a slightly different bore design than the other Backun models. The barrel is also physically similar to the larger Fatboy models with the addition of wood rings. The end result is the MoBa is the darkest and largest sounding of the Backun barrels."
It says this about the Fatboy: "Backun Fatboy barrels are the same as the Ringless models but with a much fatter body. This extra weight produces a darker and more focused sound."
Pictures of each can be found on their website.
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