Author: JF Clarinet
Date: 2017-04-05 20:03
I recently purchased a set of used Bb and A clarinets online that are <10 years old. The sound on them is absolutely spectacular, and my tutor agrees. However, the intonation on them is somewhat problematic. In general the intonation consistency of both the Bb and the A, the latter of which was clearly not used much, is solid, but both are very sharp. My tutor thinks that these have been blown out of tune. Pulling out at the barrel a fair amount and at the middle a bit seems to fix most notes, but the lower clarion notes aren't really helped by this much at all. On the Bb clarion C through clarion Eb are a sharp no matter what I do, and on the A clarion C is the only glaring problem. I have tried pulling out at the mouthpiece (made the throat tones flat if the barrel was still pulled out, and didn't help the low clarion notes if the barrel was pushed in), pulling out the bell (did essentially nothing), switching to a longer barrel (barely helped), and playing on different mouthpieces.
The Vandoren Cl4 mouthpiece I usually play on has a history of being sharp on most clarinets I have played on, but never to the point where pulling out the barrel hasn't been enough. I tried playing on the other mouthpieces I have sitting around: an old HS* (which sounded terrible and was more sharp) and what I think is a Vandoren B45 with the markings worn off (which was a little better). My tutor let me try a Lomax mouthpiece, which significantly improved intonation on the new set and my other clarinets, but I still had to pull out the barrel some.
What can I do to try and solve this problem? Could different or softer reeds help? Is the instrument actually blown out? Is this something a good technician could help solve?
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