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Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 16:31:48 -0800
From: tubadave
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]"A bit off the subject. I bought a Marigaux clarinet recently on ebay, which
I really like and found it has great tone quality, etc. Anyway, I took it to
my repair guy because I wasn't crazy about how the keys felt and he tells me
it isn't grenadilla but boxwood.
That is fine with me, but the question is this...is there anything special or
different I should be doing with this wood? I know the older clarinets were
made of boxwood. Historically, can anyone tell me why they switched to
grenadilla?Thanks in advance for your answers.
Jean"
Box wood was the wood of choice for european winds until colonialism
began supplying other woods. Boxwood as well as the fruit woods need to
be played frequently then waxed or oiled when stored to prevent
cracking. I suggest treating your instrument as a fine cigar would be.
plenty of moisture in the case (a sponge) with a hygrometer built into
the misc. compartment. The warmth of breath & humidity contribute to
maintaining the instrument, so measures need to be taken when they are
not played. Grenadilla, blackwood and ebony cure slower & experience
higher fallout in the process but once they are fully cured & selected
properly they are more apt to remain more stable than the historical
"Recorder & Shawm" woods. These woods as well as pernambuco are all
being thinned to dangerous levels. When the Brits relinquished the
managed teak forests in Malaysia etc, teak then became less available,
because it was ALL harvested at once, rather than on a rotating schedule
of many years. Controlled harvesting could work for musical woods if
someone would establish the tree farms needed to grow sustainable
supplies, every year would yield a reliable harvest. this could only
HELP the economies of the countries where these woods grow.David Flager
---------------------------------------------------------Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 18:50:06 -0600
From: Jim Quist
Subject: [CB] wood choices> Controlled harvesting could work for musical woods if
> someone would establish the tree farms needed to grow sustainable
> supplies, every year would yield a reliable harvest. this could only
> HELP the economies of the countries where these woods grow.Who evaluates woods for their potential musical qualities? Are all the
world's good musical woods already known? I like the idea of tree farms,
but what would we grow here in Wisconsin? I think of persimmon*, osage
orange*, and native hickory as having potential, but I'm not a woodworker.
Who studies these things?Seems that Fox has experimented a great deal with different woods for
bassoons, a topic I find intriguing. Tell me more.Jim Quist
* These two trees are not native to Wisconsin, but grow well here,
albeit slowly.---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 22:54:22 -0500
From: jim & joyce
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]Selmer made EEb clarinets down to E and also down to Eb. I
have one of the former, and find myself missing the low Eb.
Apparently Stephen Fox in Canada will (or says he can) make
a low Eb extension.cheers
jim---------------------------------------------------------
From: "Merlin Williams"
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 13:31:32 -0500Steve certainly can. One of the first contra extensions he ever made was for
a Selmer 1440 I used to own. It went down to Eb, but I wanted a D extension,
since the pedal F is a very useful note in band literature. He added a thumb
key under the thumb rest to control the key. If you were contemplating the
Eb addition, why not just go for a D...
Visit Merlin's Mouthpiece
Jupiter Saxophone Artist/Clinician and member of the the Sax Ring.
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 12:11:49 -0800
From: Grant Green
Subject: [CB] Bass Sax
Here's an odd one. I just received a copy of "1re Pièce de Concours"
for Bb bass sax and piano by Julien Porret (copyright 1963). Two
curious aspects to the sheet music. First is that the bass sax part
is written in Bb bass clef (sounding a whole step lower than
written). I don't have a problem with bass clef, although it may
take an adjustment to play the part on sarrusophone.The second oddity is that, while the range ascends only to written
Eb4 (which is where the keywork stops on many older basses), it
descends to written A1, a half step below the range of any production
model bass sax. And it isn't just a passing note, but a whole note,
at forte, and andante (quarter = 63). The note is approached
scalewise (D, C, Bb, A), and departed the same way (with a breath
indicated immediately after the whole note). So the question is: how
easy is it to lip down from Bb to A on a bass sax?Grant
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grant Green
Sarrusophones, contrabass reeds, &
other brobdignagian acoustic exotica http://www.contrabass.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
---------------------------------------------------------Subject: Re: [CB] Bass Sax
From: "michael.kilpatrick"
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 17:22:19 -0500Grant Green wrote:
> The second oddity is that, while the range ascends only to written Eb4
> (which is where the keywork stops on many older basses), it descends
> to written A1, a half step below the range of any production model
> bass sax. And it isn't just a passing note, but a whole note, at
> forte, and andante (quarter =3D 63). The note is approached scalewise
> (D, C, Bb, A), and departed the same way (with a breath indicated
> immediately after the whole note). So the question is: how easy is it
> to lip down from Bb to A on a bass sax?A friend of mine in Perth, Australia (who sold me the goldplated Conn
14m) also has/had a bass sax made in stainless steel by apprentices at the
Keilworth factory. It's one of a pair. You can see in a few places where
mistakes were made and corrected, such as the wrong positioning of a
tonehole, corrected with a covering plate.The instrument has a low A.
Michael Kilpatrick (not in Sheffield)
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