 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: BartHx
Date: 2009-10-25 16:55
I have a hobby of restoring clarinets and making them available to students in my area who otherwise would not be interested or able to get into music programs in school (our nearest music store is over an hour away). I am amazed by the number of instruments that go by with a broken center tenon (has the number increased or am I just noticing it now that I am repairing). I don't have the tools to install a replacement on a wooden tenon but, so far, I have been able to epoxy and pin the plastic ones so long as the pieces are all there.
Are there more kids sitting on their clarinets than there used to be?
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-10-25 17:41
My wife used to teach in the Baltimore City school system and often had this problem. Most of the clarinets came in long cases though, maybe so the kids didn't have to take them apart. Since there was so little repair budget, or non at all in her later years, she would supper glue the tenon back on and also glue the joints together. It was either do that or never use the clarinet again. She was a soldier, she taught in the inner city for 31 years. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2009-10-25 23:17
Centre tenons will break as a result of a fall, so the only things I can think of that's happening here is they're either being stood up on the bell and inadvertently get knocked over, or are laid on a chair and get knocked when someone catches them on the way past. The mid tenon is the weakest area of any clarinet, and the one most likely to snap on composite clarinets.
Later on if you find someone locally who has a decent lathe (ideally one that a clarinet joint can fit inside the throat) or similar turning equipment, glue the broken tenon back on and have the bore opened up and a length of brass or nickel silver tubing glued into it (with epoxy), then drill through the blocked toneholes. At least this way the tenon should withstand any lateral pressure (within reason) much better than an all plastic tenon.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: knotty
Date: 2009-10-25 23:30
Chris P:
Don't you love it on ebay they photograph the clarinet standing upright on the bell on a table! I've often shuddered and wondered how many fell down and your bidding on that item.
I have a lathe that has a three bearing center where I can mount the clarinet body with the one end spinning free to do internal cutting. Should come in handy if I get a broken tenon.
knotty
~ Musical Progress: None ~
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Author: BartHx
Date: 2009-10-26 00:22
I have a lathe. I guess my next project should be to make some sort of adaptor to hold the joint steady (the throat is not large enough to take the body -- only a little over an inch). My most recent project did come from that auction site. Except for the center joint, it seems like it has hardly been used. The seller showed it in the case only with the upper joint out and on top of the rest of it with the center joint aimed away from the camera. The seller identified it as "plays well". I suggested to him that he was fortunate to have found a buyer who was looking for an instrument to repair. The tenon is successfully epoxied back on and I plan to pin it in about three places parallel to the bore. When I retired from teaching science, they would not let me keep all the microscopes I was keeping alive, so this keeps me busy. Thanks for the good input.
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Author: William
Date: 2009-10-26 15:22
No matter how carefully you watch over "the flock", kids will be kids, especially when out of the band room. Two brief examples from my personal "teach more carefully" notebook: 1) the sixth grader who, after listening to a carefull description given (by me) on how to clean brass instruments and, in particular, give trombones a "bath", went home and performed a bathing of her assembled clarinet; & 2) the new 7th grade bassoonist who (also at home) tried to disassemble the instrument by first separating the two wings by pull them apart--you all can visualize the unfortunate result. Oh, yes, and then there was the sousaphone left laying outside behind the family automobile.....but I am happily retired now and need to rest.
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2009-10-26 15:47
After putting it together, this is the first thing a beginner must learn: how to put it down again!
On A Stand
- or -
In Two Halves
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Author: lrooff
Date: 2009-10-27 00:36
This does raise an interesting question of why no one is making student instruments with a one-piece body. It's no harder to make a 20 inch plastic cylinder than it is to make two ten-inch plastic cylinders, and, unlike wood, it's not hard to find a longer piece with good quality and straight grain.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2009-10-27 13:48
Another advantage to the one-piece body is better tone-hole placement, without that center joint. I have a 1931 Bb Buffet with a one-piece body. It's got the best intonation of any clarinet I've ever played.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: William
Date: 2009-10-27 14:28
"unlike wood, it's not hard to find a longer piece with good quality and straight grain."
Interesting statement about wood quality and why pro clarinets are not made of one-piece bodies more exclusively. Does it follow that making smaller sections--two piece wood clarinets--lets the manufacturer make use of smaller sections of bad wood that would not be suitable for a longer one-piece unit? The result--possibly, in my mind--being two inferior joints that have a greater tendency to crack. Just a thought this am........(??)
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