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Re: Hissing sound playing E

Author: donald
Date: 2012-05-25 10:23

I have had this problem oon two Buffet clarinets i owned over the years. On both of them it was found to be caused by an iregular tone hole shape in the hole immediately below the first index finger. Both clarinets were extensively checked and tested for leaks/tone hole height etc etc. In both cases the "fuzzy" E was fixed by work inside the tone hole.
In the most reccent case the tone hole (on an RC A clarinet) had been undercut heavily on the "north" side of the tone hole, and had a "lump" in the "south" side of the tone hole. This "lump" was removed using a file (probably removing about two postage stamp thickness of wood that was slightly off to one side, making the tone hole irregular in shape. An instrument maker explained it to me thus...
- the bump had been causing a sudden compresson of the vibrating air column, causing the hissing sound.
This effectively cured the hiss, caused a slightly higher pitch in both the E and high B, which was then offset by being able to lower the pad height slightly (it having been raised considerably to see if this would fix the hiss).
This may not be the case in your clarinet, and this kind of action should not be done lightly without first trying all other options.
dn

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