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Speaker Key Touchpiece Height; What Is Your Preference?

Author: Chris P
Date: 2021-02-01 02:16

Personally I set speaker key touches so they're sitting above the thumb ring, then the left thumb can simply nudge it down and when held down it's still sitting slightly above the level of the thumb ring. If it has to drop below the level of the thumb ring, then that can risk the left thumb uncovering the lower edge of the thumb hole if the player has skinny thumbs.

Same with plateaux clarinets, altos, basses and any others with a left thumb plate as that's more comfortable than having the speaker touch drop below the level of the thumb plate as the edge of the thumb plate won't be gigging into the thumb and also means the left wrist doesn't have to rotate in order to hold the speaker touch down.

I've seen some clarinets where the body has been recessed so the tip of the speaker touch will drop down into it and sit way below the level of the thumb ring. On these ones I've usually filled in the recess with cork to the same level as the joint surface, radiused it and corked the speaker key in the usual manner but still giving the speaker key sufficient venting.

On Albert/simple system and also German and Oehler systems where the left thumb tube is flush with the joint surface, then that's more comfortable than having the speaker touch sat above and resting on the joint surface as is having the tip of the speaker touch curved down to provide a nicely rounded edge to nudge onto.

That also makes things more comfy on some Boehm systems with thin speaker touchpieces instead of leaving the undersides flat and trimming or grinding the key cork completely flat so it sits against the joint surface.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

Post Edited (2021-02-01 22:57)

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