Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-11-15 14:42
I would only add that I have found that regular register vent tube maintenance helps this problem as well. I have chamfered pads on my register keys, and it does help with the problems listed. However, I have found that over a year or so there will be a buildup of "stuff" (a combination of case dust and fluff, condensation and whatever) that will diminish the diameter of the register tube opening.
The solution is simple enough - as described above, you simply remove the key, take an appropriate sized pipe cleaner to the tube, and then ensure that anything left from the pipe cleaner is removed as well.
I also make it a habit to "blow down" my register tubes when drying the condensation out of the horn before putting it up. After completion of use of the horn, open the covering key and then blow air through the tube before running the swab through the bore. Then, after swabbing the bore out, open the key and blow into the tube from the outside (like blowing out a birthday cake candle). This ensures that the vent is dry and does not offer a good target for stray lint and the like. I also blow the vents while assembling the horns, just to be careful.
(Part of the reason that I need to do this is that I use a bassoon long joint swab to dry out my bass clarinet. It does a good job without all of the tangled string and knotted silk that I had encountered with a bass clarinet swab, but it does occasionally drop a piece of lint in the wrong place. With the cleanout regime employed above, whatever lint that does get deposited gets cleaned out without a problem.)
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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The Clarinet BBoard
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