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Buffet bass clarinet register tube experiment

Hello

A friend from the other clarinet forums told me about this forum, so I thought I should post my experiment about the newer model Buffet bass clarinet (1183 and 1193) register tube. Here is the full article with photos (hopefully they I will manage to post them).

A few years ago I found a problem on the new Buffet bass clarinet models (1183 and 1193, at least from 2000 but maybe before). I thought it might be a good idea to post about it since the idea can also work for any instrument (clarinet or saxophone).

First I will describe the problem. It was a response problem of the clarion notes,but only in a very specific way. It was for notes that use the upper (neck) register key, when played legato from a low note. It was worst on the E, the first note which uses this reg key, and gradually improves. When starting on this or other clarion notes there was no problem. Only when playing to them legato from the low notes there was a lot of resistant, with an airy (like 'pft') sound between the notes, making it impossible to play these intervals fast. It was also worse the louder you played.

Here is one example of an exercise you can do to notice the problem. The interval that is marked is where the problem starts and is worst.
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All that happened before I learned about changing sizes of octave/register vents on saxophones or clarinets, so when I was convinced there was a problem I did a long research to find out what the problem was. Eventually I found from two other bass clarinetists it was the register key size. One of them had Buffet change it to a different size. The other is a consultant for Buffet and suggested it was the size of the vent hole, but said there were some problems with making it bigger (intonation of some notes). For some reason the problem wasn't known to most clarinetists who played on these models.

It's worth mentioning that since I found out about I have tried a few bass clarinets from these models that were made around 2000, a few more in 2005, and one that was made in 2007 (I think I've tried a total of about ten), all with the identical problem. I've also found more clarinetists who play this model, that when I described the specific way to produce the problem they noticed it too. I have also heard from a few (two or three that I remember) players who claimed they don't notice this problem. I only got a chance to hear one of those clarinetists, sort of a known player in USA, and although he claimed that problem doesn't happen, I could hear it when he was playing.

So together with a friend I decided to do an experiment. The original hole is 3.0mm. At first I simply enlarged it to 3.5mm and the problem was pretty much solved. But one of the things that helped me realize there was a problem is that some Selmer bass clarinets didn't have it, so I wanted to try other sizes too (the Selmer 35/37 model register hole size is 4.5mm if I remember right).

So me and my friend decided to do a big threaded register tube, which would be attached to the neck, and several threaded tubes with different sizes holes that would fit it. The size turned out just so the key doesn't have to be removed to change the tubes. I had tubes in sizes 2.5mm, 3.0mm, 3.5mm, 4.0mm and 4.5mm. I've also tried sizes 3.1mm, 3.2mm, 3.3mm and 3.4mm while gradually enlarging the original tube.

After all the experiments I found a lot of compromises between clarion and altisimo with the different tubes. The smallest tube 2.5mm had especially good response in the altisimo (from D up) but terrible clarion, including starting the notes and worst when played legato as described above. The 4.0mm completely solved the legato to clarion problem but made altisimo worse. Especially D and also Eb were very difficult to play soft, but all notes had to be voiced very carefully compared with the smaller tubes, which allowed them to pop out easily. The 4.5mm didn't have significant improvement over 4.0mm but altisimo became even worse. Overall I found the best compromise is the 3.5mm tube. It practically solved the clarion problem, with only a little difference between it and the 4.0mm tube, and altisimo was only very slightly less easy than the 3.0mm tube.

I think it's worth enlarging the tube to at least 3.2mm for at least some improvement, and possibly not more than 3.6mm (impossible with the original tube) to avoid problems with altisimo. 3.5mm worked best for me, but i know a player who has a tube more than 4.0mm and it works best for him. So far in my country one other person with the same model bass clarinet came to check the neck with interchangable tubes and he also decided to enlarge to 3.5mm.

This photo shows all the tubes. At the front is the big tube that is attached to the neck, and behind are all the threaded tubes (one is just a Buffet style bigger tube). You can notice there are flats on each tube, and the key at the front opens them when it is a little too difficult to open by hand (though I only change them when someone else wants to comapre).
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This photo shows the big tube soldered to the neck and compared with an original tube.
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This photo is the big tube on the neck and one of the threaded tubes (the one I use) next to it.
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The last photo is the tube screwed in place.
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One person was interested in the amount of instruments tested, so I have this information to add:
I tested One Buffet 1193 from 2000, seven Buffet 1193s from 2004, two Buffet 1193s from 2005, one Buffet 1183 from 2005, one Buffet 1193 from 2007, one Selmer 37 from about 1995, one Selmer 35 from about 1999, one Selmer 37 from 2004, two Selmer Privilege 67s from 2005, one Selmer Privilege 65 from 2005, one Selmer Privilege 67 from 2006, Amati 691 from about 2004. In 2005 I've also tried several new models from Leblanc and Yamaha (I don't rememer the model names but they were all of the professional models). I've also tried several older bass clarinets like Leblanc, Selmer, Buffet, Orsi.

I hope this will somehow help!

Nitai

Edit: There was a problem with the photos, hopefully I fixed it and they are visible now.
 
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Hello Nitai & welcome to the forum.

Thank you for this very interesting post. Since I'm really only a sax player now & not a bass clarinet player anymore, I'll let real players comment on your work (but it looks very interesting from where I sit). The bass clarinets I used to play were all much older than 2000.

Anyways, my real purpose for posting was to just to say thank you for your contribution to the forum. I hope you visit us occasionally, and find your time here interesting.
 
Location of the inner end of the register tube is also important

I'm a bass clarinetist and a noise control engineer - I did my senior project on clarinet register holes. The register hole acts very much like a finger lightly touching a string on a violin to create harmonics - it relieves the pressure at a node. Unlike other holes, it should project at least 1/3 of the diameter of the clarinet bore. The problem is that even with 2 register holes, we're approximating the location of the node for a wide range of notes. So there will be trade-offs. Check out the University of New South Wales' web page on the subject: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/clarinetacoustics.html#registerhole
 
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