 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: YCL-450
Date: 2006-04-11 11:58
Does anyone know what a new upper section (wood only no keys) would cost for a YCL 450?
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Author: Merlin
Date: 2006-04-11 12:12
Why do you want a new upper joint? It's liable to cost a couple of hundred for the part, then add the labour to migrate the keys and repad.
If you have a crack, a good ww tech can fill or pin it. We rarely see cracking bad enough to warrant swapping a whole joint.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-04-11 12:57
If the clarinet is new, the company that supplied it should offer a warranty and the transplant should be free of charge, depending on the circumstances.
I had a Yamaha 821TP oboe and the top joint split after about 2 months of me buying it, and Yamaha supplied a free top joint (pillared and sprung only - no keys). The keys all went on with no trouble at all, and only a few pads needed reseating. I've transplanted top joints on a few wooden Yamaha clarinets under warranty as well and the job was fairly easy (if you know what you're doing), as well as a wooden (YPC-62) piccolo body replacement.
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Author: YCL-450
Date: 2006-04-11 15:01
Why do you want a new upper joint? It's liable to cost a couple of hundred for the part, then add the labour to migrate the keys and repad.
If you have a crack, a good ww tech can fill or pin it. We rarely see cracking bad enough to warrant swapping a whole joint.
Merlin Williams
Mouthpiece Refacer
www.garyarmstrong.com
I have a YCL 450 I got off ebay and it looks like it has a crack in the upper joint. Not all the way through. I would like to get a replacement and just keep using it the way it is but have a new joint on hand in case the crack goes through.
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Author: Merlin
Date: 2006-04-11 15:32
Best to get the crack filled or pinned. It may well be leaking - almost certainly is causing leaks if it passes through a tonehole.
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Author: YCL-450
Date: 2006-04-11 15:46
Merlin wrote:
> Best to get the crack filled or pinned. It may well be leaking
> - almost certainly is causing leaks if it passes through a
> tonehole.
What do they use to fill a crack? Is it something that can be purchased?
>
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Author: Cuisleannach
Date: 2006-04-11 18:04
I agree with Merlin.....the repair isn't necessarily difficult to an experienced tech but it absolutely must be done right....to do it right requires the training and the experience.
Also, cracks tend to get worse...especially when you don't need them to, so it is best to get it done sooner rather than later.
-Randy
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Author: YCL-450
Date: 2006-04-11 19:09
Cuisleannach wrote:
> I agree with Merlin.....the repair isn't necessarily difficult
> to an experienced tech but it absolutely must be done
> right....to do it right requires the training and the
> experience.
>
> Also, cracks tend to get worse...especially when you don't need
> them to, so it is best to get it done sooner rather than later.
>
> -Randy
Yamaha emailed me and said the price for a new joint was $300. I am thinking seriously of just buying a new joint. I can't stand the thought of having a crack in my clarinet fixed or not. But $300 is kind of high.
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Author: Merlin
Date: 2006-04-11 19:47
And remember - $300 is just the cost of the joint with no keywork! You still have to get the keys tranferred and pads reseated or replaced. Add a few hours of shop time and you could be at almost double that cost.
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Author: mtague
Date: 2006-04-11 19:54
If the crack is repaired well, the clarinet should play fine. If the thought of a crack bothers you, you might want to get a nice non-wood clarinet (couple of makers in the instruments section to the right). Or maybe an older metal. I've never played one of those, but no crack worries... You should at least see how much it would cost to fix the crack.
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Author: YCL-450
Date: 2006-04-11 20:07
mtague wrote:
> If the crack is repaired well, the clarinet should play fine.
> If the thought of a crack bothers you, you might want to get a
> nice non-wood clarinet (couple of makers in the instruments
> section to the right). Or maybe an older metal. I've never
> played one of those, but no crack worries... You should at
> least see how much it would cost to fix the crack.
I checked and it's about $40. That's cheaper than a replacement. So does a crack effect the tone if it doesn't go all the way through?
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-04-11 20:10
40 bucks? For a crack? Now that's not expensive (that's the "just looking at" tariff here).
--
Ben
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-04-11 20:12
I played on a clarinet that cracked down through two toneholes and through to the bore. It was pinned, filled, the toneholes were bushed and has never caused any hassle, and it's still playable.
Cracks aren't the end of a clarinet - if you get it sorted it can go on for years without ever opening. Even with a new top joint transplant, who can say if the new one will or won't crack again as it will be just like having to play in a new clarinet until the new top joint stabilises.
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Author: Matt Locker
Date: 2006-04-11 20:15
YCL-450:
Three things:
1) Did the seller tell you there were no cracks? If so, then you should be able to return it to him for a full refund. That would be better than throwing a bunch of money at it.
2) Are you sure it's a crack and not a "check" - an open grain? You may want to have a good repairman check it out before you do anything else to it.
3) If it is a crack, get it fixed by a pro. Get it to someone who comes recommended on this BB. Don't buy a whole new upper joint. You're talking about a used intermediate clarinet here. By the time you get done with replacing the joint you'll have so much money into it that you could have purchased a pro clarinet. Fix it and play it. You can replace it some time down the road if you want to but for now get your money's worth out of it.
I suspect you don't have a lot of experience in this area so you may want to rely on some outside expertise.
MOO,
Matt
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Author: mtague
Date: 2006-04-11 20:25
$40 seems fair to me. Once you're at a higher level of play, you'll probably want to upgrade to a higher horn, and personally, I'd rather put $300 in my new horn fund, than into a new upper joint, if it's only $40 to do a fix.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-04-11 20:27
Just adding to point 2 above - you will find that student clarinets are made of the lower quality wood compared to pro and custom clarinets which use the better quality wood, and the wood can have open vessels running along the length of the wood ranging in length from a few millimeteres to a few centimeters, as well as worm holes that have been filled - these defects only show after machining the joint and determine whether a joint becomes a pro or student clarinet (also depending on the grain structure as well) - but the joints with the worst defects can either be turned down into barrels or scrapped.
I worked on a YCL-34II (which is the predecessor of your YCL-450) which had a natural defect on the bottom joint tenon, but it was in the tenon groove and covered by the cork so not causing any problems, as well as the top joint upper tenon having a worm hole running right through from one side to the other, and it was filled.
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Author: YCL-450
Date: 2006-04-11 20:34
YCL-450:
Three things:
1) Did the seller tell you there were no cracks? If so, then you should be able to return it to him for a full refund. That would be better than throwing a bunch of money at it.
2) Are you sure it's a crack and not a "check" - an open grain? You may want to have a good repairman check it out before you do anything else to it.
3) If it is a crack, get it fixed by a pro. Get it to someone who comes recommended on this BB. Don't buy a whole new upper joint. You're talking about a used intermediate clarinet here. By the time you get done with replacing the joint you'll have so much money into it that you could have purchased a pro clarinet. Fix it and play it. You can replace it some time down the road if you want to but for now get your money's worth out of it.
I suspect you don't have a lot of experience in this area so you may want to rely on some outside expertise.
MOO,
Matt
I can put a thin piece of paper in it and it goes about half way through. But it does follow the grain. In fact it starts and ends with different grain lines. Not continuous. Anyway I'll just have someone look at it. I'm a machinist and programmer by trade but not a musical instrument tech. I could make a new joint but would be a hell of a lot of trouble.
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Author: Cuisleannach
Date: 2006-04-11 20:36
If you have any questions about the quality of the instrument after a crack repair, ask an oboist. Oboes are far more susceptible to cracks, and a fair number of oboes (even the best) do crack within the first year. Properly pinned the oboes do just fine, even in the hands of oboists in top symphonies. A well done crack repair is almost invisible, too, and you would probably be hard pressed to find where the crack was after the repair.
-Randy
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-04-11 20:53
My oboe teacher has been playing her Marigaux oboe for the last 30+ years with the top joint split from top to bottom and pinned all the way down - she bought it in the UK and it split when she went back to Minnesota with it in the early '70s during the winter, but it hasn't moved since it was pinned.
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Author: Merlin
Date: 2006-04-11 20:56
"If you have any questions about the quality of the instrument after a crack repair, ask an oboist. Oboes are far more susceptible to cracks, and a fair number of oboes (even the best) do crack within the first year. Properly pinned the oboes do just fine, even in the hands of oboists in top symphonies. A well done crack repair is almost invisible, too, and you would probably be hard pressed to find where the crack was after the repair."
Most of the pro oboists we deal with expect their instruments to crack. They get them filled or pinned and go on playing. I'm talking about high level players here - Toronto Symphony, National Arts Centre, Canadian Opera Company.
YCL450, get your crack professionally filled/pinned and get on with playing the horn.
Replacing a joint on an intermediate clarinet is just not worth it. Neither is making a new joint from scratch.
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