Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-07-21 07:06
* Grenadilla was chosen originally for clarinet production (before the days of plastic, rubber, and composite) because it maximized profit more than because it made great sounding clarinets. Grenadilla, as a hard wood that back in the day was plentiful, it breaks less frequently during machining (where time is money) and, as Paul says, took to screws well given this density.
* While Grendilla may be one of the better woods to make a clarinet out of, in this age, wood, at least in its original non ground down epoxy state, is hardly the ideal material to make a clarinet out of given the potential for shape change and cracking. There is nothing special about the sound one gets from Grendilla or Cocobolo. So speaking from a purely accoustical standpoint, (not a machining or shape changing one) one could consider the OP’s other woods. True though: material shape and strength can affect acoustics.
Now--before bboard members fairly get upset by this, pointing out how their Selmers, or MoBa's or LeBlancs, or Buffets (fair disclosure: owner of the latter) produce beautiful sound, let me say that I agree--but believe that to be a product of the craftsmanship that went into making the instrument, including things like bore design) more than the material it was made out of. Still more, I do not think these 2 aforementioned woods to be junk--not by any means. I am saying that other excellent materials are available today to not only produce clarinets of superb sound and durability, at cheaper cost, but that this price gap will widen as already short supplies of Grenadilla become shorter.
* By reliable source, Buffet uses the shavings from conventional clarinet making to make their Greenline so they can say that this product is composed of Grenadilla--as if shaving this stuff down doesn't change the inherent accoustical properties of this wood that were never there in the first place. This is done to not only command a premium for this product line, but not disparage their legacy 100% Grenadilla products. Looked at in reverse, I submit that Buffet could have pulverized many materials and epoxied them together to make a no less suitable material for composite clarinet production, but risked people saying, “so if there’s nothing so special about Grenadilla, why did/do you charge so much for these instruments all these years?” The fact that the shavings are already in supply is a secondary perk, offset ever so slightly buy Buffet having less wood shavings to heat their production facilities (no joke) in colder months of the year.
* "Yes, but plastic clarinets play terribly." Because limited craftsmanship is
put into most lines to keep production costs down and maximize profit given the price ceilings at which people will pay for these instruments. With no disrespect to Morrie Backun intended, does anyone think that if they ran a materials analysis of an otherwise strong instrument, his Alpha, which he describes as “a proprietary synthetic material chosen for its excellent tonal qualities,” that that they woudn’t find it bearing strong resemblance to plastic?
My predictions: the ever dwindling supply of good woods to make a stable cost effective instrument out of (primarily Grenadilla) will force manufacturers to make plastic and rubber instruments. Tom, (Ridenour) you’ve been right all along about hard rubber. They’ll call the plastic something else to command top dollar. Anyone that thinks Grenadilla isn’t increasing in price and decreasing in acceptable stock need look no further than not only Buffet’s Greenline product initiative, but the fact that the Prestige line of Buffets non Greenline clarinets has wood better than today’s R13, and comparable to that of golden age R13s.
No, not every material is suited for clarinet making. But many materials are cheaper and better at making clarinets than Grendilla, Rosewood, Tulip wood, or the alternative woods of this thread’s discussion.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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