 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SVClarinet09
Date: 2006-12-26 15:32
Earlier this month we were at an honors band clinic. The girl who's second chair in the 11/12 honors band (the girl who is second chair in my class) the wood on her clarinet swelled up. She has an R13 Limite that she bought no more than one year ago. This problem really scares me because sometimes she can't play and then I'd be the only one left on first part. I can do it but there are a few pieces(mainly Molly on the Shore) where I need her to play one measure at the end of my solo to give me time to breath. I did ask her how frequently she oils her clarinet. You will never believe the answer. Once every two weeks or so. She oils it to the point where oil is all over her pads. Her pads have that oily color to them, some even black. I remember for an audition she said to me "I oiled my clarinet last night to get a better sound" and I said really? that isn't good and i touched the inside of her lower joint only to have oil drip all over my fingers. Her bell also stays stuck to the clarinet when she plays and she can't take that apart either. When she bought her clarinet, I asked her if she broke it in the right way (one week play for 15mins and so forth) and she said that she just took it and played it every day. Could this be the source of the problem? Is there anything that can be done to help prevent this problem in the future?
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-12-26 16:17
Melvin -
Your standmate's clarinet has obviously become unplayable, and she needs to get the spoiled pads replaced ASAP. In the meantime, though, you have to solve your problem.
The simple way is for your friend to use a different clarinet. With her own mouthpiece and Buffet barrel, any clarinet should play well, even a Vito or a Bundy.
The longer-term solution is to build up your breath capacity. As you inhale, don't do it just in front, but also expand your abdomen at the sides and in back. When you do that, it's not difficult to keep the sound going for 30 seconds, and I can go for 60 seconds. Blow yourself up from bottom to top, so that the air pushes your chest up from below. With that kind of reserve, you can get through any solo and ride over any disaster.
François Kloc of Buffet says that the bore should never be oiled. I'm sure the repair tech will tell your friend the same thing.
Good luck.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Vytas
Date: 2006-12-26 17:08
> *** "François Kloc of Buffet says that the bore should never be oiled. I'm sure the repair tech will tell your friend the same thing". *** <
Francois Kloc meant the "NEW CLARINET" bore should never be oiled (during the warranty period). But since Buffet do not finish the bore the way they used it does require oiling. Of course this type of over the top oiling (described above) is nonsense and after the soaking period the oil MUST BE COMPLETELY CLEANED OFF from the surface of the wood.
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Francois Kloc wrote:
"I am agree with you when you say that you are not sure if oiling is a good things unless you have a really dried out instruments. Like I already said a new piece a wood doesn't need oil, when I say new piece a wood I mean from 1 to 6 years. Of course it depends where you are living and it is where I said that sometime the wood need some oil. If you notice that the inside is dried out you should put some oil. You have an easy way to check this, take you instrument and take out the barrel, then look at the tenon part you will see the thickness of the wood from outside to inside in one time, if the outside is dry it can be only the fact that some water staying and the acide you have on that give a kind of clear brown look, this doesn't need oil it is not dried out. If the center looks clear brown and that when you pass your nail and you feel that is rough, you should put some oil or have somebody do it. When I put oil on instrument I use a feather and I just put the top of the feather on my oil solution and I do one pass. Then I wait for two or three hours to see if the wood soak the oil, and if the color change. And I do this process until the wood look dark brown and shinny. I never put tones of oil because I don't want the oil go into the undercutting to not rune the pads and facilitate dirt when I swab the instrument"....François Kloc
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Vytas Krass
Clarinet Repair
Professional clarinet technician
Custom clarinet mouthpiece maker
Former professional clarinet player
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Author: JJAlbrecht
Date: 2006-12-26 20:51
Even on my thirty + year old horns, I rarely oil the bores more than twice a year. There is no reason to do it more than that, and certainly NOT on an instrument which your friend only started playing last year.
It sounds like even if she were only to oil ihe instrument a couple of times a year, she is putting way too much oil per application onto the bore. It only takes a few drops on an old swab to make it ready to oil the bore. First off, she needs to remove as much of the excess oil as possible from the instrument. I would use a clean swab and keep swabbing until the excess is removed. After this, this can become her bore-oiling swab, only to be used VERY SPARINGLY. Swabbing the bore lightly should be done once or twice a year, at most. She will also need to have the instrument repadded, and possibly have the whole thing diosaassembled and the tone holes inspected and cleaned out.
As to the swelling, this may or may not be due to overoiling. My old R13 (vintage 1971) swelled frequently at the tenon joining the bell to the lower joint. My daughter plays that horn now, and it still will sometimes swell to the point where it is difficult to remove the bell from the instrument. Letting it sit for an hour or two without playing is the easy way to let the swelling go down. I have also found that a gentle rocking motion, rather than a twisting motion, will separate the two sections, though I was very leery of trying this out until my teacher showed me it would not harm the instrument, if I were to do it carefully.
You might want to steer your friend to viewing this BBS, so she can learn and ask questions of people who know what they are doing, as far as doing preventative maintenence on a good wooden instrument. She obviously has no clue at the present. If she keeps abusing this horn, she will destroy it.
Jeff
Post Edited (2006-12-26 22:58)
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Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2006-12-26 21:14
I had made the very same mistake your friend made 3 years ago. My clarinet was about 4 years old and I oiled my clarinet probably once a week (a few drops and then put the swab through. The same swab I had been using to clean out my clarinet) I didn't take the time to research how to oil, when, etc. Needless to say, the day before All-State auditons, my clarinet stopped playing and so we had to get it into the tech for an emergency re-pad. I got to watch the tech the whole time do the repadding and he even taught me how to correctly disassemble the clarinet without bending and keys/rods and he gave a few other pointers. Luckily, it got repadded (costly though for all the pads to be replaced!) and now I just leave oiling my clarinet to my tech (who I see 1-2 a year) when she thinks it needs it. It was a pricy lesson to learn, but I'll never be oiling my clarinet that much (if at all) ever again.
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Author: SVClarinet09
Date: 2006-12-26 22:17
Everyone thanks for the advice. I've told my friend about this to see if she'll look at it.
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Author: leonardA
Date: 2007-05-04 03:02
I called the Buffet office here in Jacksonville, Florida where I live and spoke to their woodwind technician. He said that any wood clarinet should never be oiled. I didn't ask why. He did say that during the first month or so when playing a new clarinet should be swabbed every 10-15 minutes to prevent excess water absorption which could cause cracking.
Leonard
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Author: joeyscl
Date: 2007-05-09 03:28
SVClarinet09, thats the same "friend" who would always fight for the solos with you even though you are first chair? lol...
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