Author: t.s.
Date: 2016-09-24 00:26
I bought a vintage wooden clarinet (an Eric Petterson) some time ago to practice my repair skills on. It is now in a state where I can play test it to make final adjustments, but found out to my horror that the clarion register is 10 - 30 cents flat (with respect to the chalumeau) for the right hand notes. As I move up to the left hand notes, the tuning creeps in line with the rest of the instrument. Curiously, the altissimo is well in tune with the chalumeau.
Overall, the clarinet plays sharp. Using Vandoren B40 lyre and with the barrel pushed all the way in, the chalumeau notes are 0-30 cents sharp (A = 442 Hz). Of course, I can pull the barrel out to bring these notes more in tune, but that does nothing to correct the discrepancy of tuning between the registers.
Are there any means to correct the tuning without resorting to costly hand-tuning made by an expert? I'm having a hard time believing the clarinet would have been designed to play this way. It is a shame, really, since the sound is nice and dark, and the clarinet is mechanically in good condition.
Some measurements: barrel length 63,8 mm (bore length 25,2 mm); upper joint bore diameter 14,6 mm (cylindrical, but slightly oval); total length of the bore 573,2 mm. The clarinet came with a "Conbrio" mouthpiece (also by Eric Petterson), but the tip has broken off and gone missing. The mouthpiece bore is 14,6 mm. Although the tip is missing, it seems that the mouthpiece length would be somewhat shorter than my Vandoren.
I wonder, could it be possible that the clarinet requires that specific mouthpiece to play in tune? The measurements seem to indicate that it's volume would be smaller than the Vandoren I'm using.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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