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Water in A/G# tone holes

Author: crvsp
Date: 2020-12-28 07:36

Hi all,
as you can infer from the title, my A clarinet's A/G# tone holes have been getting blocked by water really consistently, and this almost never happens on my Bb clarinet. I'm not exactly why this is the case, but my theory is that the cork on my A is a little looser and water buildup in the tenons might be dripping down from all sides... Not entirely sure. If anyone has a good solution to prevent this from happening, please let me know!

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Re: Water in A/G# tone holes

Author: JTJC
Date: 2020-12-28 17:30

Use a cotton bud to smear a thin film of olive oil or almond oil around those holes on the bore side. That solution can last a while. Also, oiling the whole bore helps remove or redirect those water channels that occasionally develop in the bore.

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Re: Water in A/G# tone holes

Author: kdk
Date: 2020-12-28 21:37

crvsp wrote:

> ... my theory is that the cork on
> my A is a little looser and water buildup in the tenons might
> be dripping down from all sides... Not entirely sure.

JTJC's suggestions should help. My repairman has sometimes brushed a very thin layer of melted beeswax in the bore just above a chronically dripping tone hole - might last a little longer than oil, but trickier to but in place. If by saying the cork "is a little looser" you mean it fits more loosely into the barrel's socket, you might test if there's a gap between the tenon and the socket by putting in a tuning ring to fill any gap and see if the dripping stops.

Karl

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