 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jamnik
Date: 2015-02-09 09:57
My daughter has been playing a Bb Recital for a year now. It was purchased as a demo horn with little to no play time and a serial # beginning with Q. The sound is really something to behold and she immediately fell in love with it over her Leblanc Concerto and Selmer Prologue. The problem is that this horn seems very prone to cracking and has done so three times so far. The first time was from the top tenon to the register tube four months ago. The second time was 45 days ago and the crack went through the A tone hole and the hidden tone hole under the A key. Both tone holes had inserts placed and the crack was pinned using two pins. Yesterday I noticed the front and back cracks opened significantly even with the pins. The rear crack now goes from the top tenon to the thumb vent and the front goes down to the first ring key. I have seen some other Recital horns for sale with several repaired cracks and wanted to get some opinions on possibly just replacing the horn with a new one instead of repairing each crack while wondering when it will crack again. I am almost certain that the present cracks will have to be banded. She plays this horn a total of three to four hours each day and since the last repair has been swabbing the bore every five to ten minutes of play instead of prior to putting the horn away. She has tried several R13's over the past three days and is not at all excited about getting one. One in particular is very nice with super tone and response for an older horn. I feel like I'm trying to take a favorite childhood toy away from her by suggesting another clarinet.
Anyone else have a Recital with crack prone wood? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Jamnik
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Author: Johan H Nilsson
Date: 2015-02-10 03:57
Googling for Selmer Recital and crack ;-) will tell that you are not the only one. Difficult to say if it is more prone to cracking than other clarinets.
I don't need to do everyday training on my most precious instruments. Skiers save their best pair of skis for competition...
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Author: Steven Ocone
Date: 2015-02-10 04:05
Some pieces of wood are prone to cracking. I am surprised only two pins were used. I space them fairly close. A long crack can have 4-5 pins. Also I do not use special methods to close the crack as I use to. I found that this can lead to a crack on the opposite side.
Steve Ocone
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Author: GLHopkins
Date: 2015-02-10 06:01
I would ask the dealer that sold it to you to order you a new joint and sell it to you at their cost.
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Author: Jamnik
Date: 2015-02-10 07:27
I agree with you Johan on practicing and performing on two different horns.
Being that the initial crack on the front was from the Recital emblem through the A and just into the G tone hole, only two pins were used. The repair tech did want to do a third but it most likely would have run through the A key spring trench since it is fairly deep. This tech will be at the convention this weekend in San Antonio and will discuss this with the Selmer rep with pictures I sent, but their policy on catastrophic cracks is a case by case basis.
I have read that most players noticed a lack of volume with the Recital, but this one had a very large dynamic range. I'm wondering if a replacement joint may narrow this range down not to mention that it will most likely play/feel different since we are talking about natural wood, hopefully it will not be too much difference.
Jamnik
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