 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: toronto_clarinetist
Date: 2015-05-23 06:32
How can I distinguish between a crack and the grainy parts inside the bore of a clarinet? Where is that fine line?
Post Edited (2015-05-23 06:33)
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Author: JHowell
Date: 2015-05-23 09:00
You will hardly ever see a crack on the bore of an instrument that has not started on the exterior. Don't worry about anything you see inside the bore. In the first place, it's hard to see, so you have no real idea what you're seeing. In the second place, it doesn't matter. Clarinets don't crack from the inside out, they crack from the outside in.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-05-23 14:43
True dat.
But most bores are sufficiently smoothed out in the reaming and buffing process so that you don't really see wood irregularities.
How did you first notice this?
and........
Where (joint and corresponding key on the outside) do you see this "irregularity?'
................Paul Aviles
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Author: toronto_clarinetist
Date: 2015-05-23 16:33
Thanks for the replies. I just purchased a new instrument 2.5 weeks ago. with my previous instrument as JHowell mentioned, the cracks formed outside of the bore and my repairman pinned them. I'm just a little paranoid of the graini-ness (for the lack of a better word to describe the inside of the bore) which is located everywhere and especially on top join near the left hand tone holes from the inside. Everything seems to be playing fine. again, I think JHowell answered my question and I'm just paranoid...
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Author: JHowell
Date: 2015-05-23 17:25
My b flat has a bore that is as rough as plywood, but it plays. If it bothers you to see roughness in the bore, don't look in the bore. Just play it.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-05-23 18:02
No worries if it's generally rough. Of course you could shine a light down those tone holes to make sure there are no fissures there.
............Paul Aviles
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Author: JHowell
Date: 2015-05-26 20:10
Yes, toronto_clarinetist, I'm from Pittsburgh. Here's a life lesson that I think applies:
For a time when I was in college, my "transportation" was a beat-up 1972 GMC Jimmy. Funds available for repairing it may be judged by the fact that I was driving it in the first place, but by doing a lot of work myself and by going to a mechanic stuck over on the far side of an industrial park I managed. My mechanic was named Earl; a shade-tree mechanic, the kind with country music going and a sign on the wall that said "We Don't Work on Foreign S***."
At one point, when I was visiting Earl for, I think, a new U-joint, I mentioned that I thought an exhaust valve was going bad. Earl asked what made me think that, and I replied that when I shifted gears I could see a puff of smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe when I looked in the mirror. "Easy fix," said Earl. "Don't look in the mirror."
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Author: JHowell
Date: 2015-05-28 09:20
I'm in the camp that finds that bore oil adversely affects sound. I haven't seen this kind of crack even in barrels, but to me a barrel is a wear item. I don't care what anybody else does, but I don't oil my clarinets and none of my colleagues do either.
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