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Buzzing Problem

Roger Aldridge

Composer in Residence
Distinguished Member
Hi Guys,

I've been noticing a pesky buzz at times on my old Bundy. Others hear it too. The range of notes having the buzz varies but it appears to be mostly around middle D, C#, C. However, today I noticed it going up to middle E. I've tried everything I can think of: swabing, checking the middle joint for water, middle C#, etc. At times the buzz goes away but comes back later. I probably need to take it to my repair tech for a check over. But, I thought that I'd ask here first to see if anyone can think of a simple solution.

I'm using a Grabner K11 or K11e mouthpiece, #3 Legere Quebec reed, and Klassik string ligature as my set up on the Bundy.

Thanks, Roger
 
It sounds to me that you have a partially cut through pad somewhere around the offending notes. The outer membrane can get cut through over the years, and the "flap" left will occasionally oscillate fast enough to make a buzzing sound.

I had a particularly malicious bad pad on my bass clarinet for a number of years before we took the key off and actually saw the failed pad up close and personal, so slight was the cut and so good the fit up against the pad filling. It made the note venting from the tone hole "stuffy" when played, but snugged up tight whenever it was examined with the key in place.

In the best of musical tradition, I played around the B natural/F# "stuffy" note (T/XXX/OXO) with the side key version of the fingering for a number of years, so much so that I still prefer that fingering to the 'OXO" one. I never had the horn set down long enough to have someone take a good look at it. There's a moral to that story somewhere.,,
 
it could just be stretched too

ever hear of people using nail polish for this they put a dab of it in the middle of the pad. Of course, nail polish isn't exactly a good material to use on pads either. and they have to figure out which pad is the offending one.

so as terry says .. it's a pad.
 
Thanks!
 
It's like putting a mass balance on a structure such as a bridge that's affected by the wind. The dab of polish changes the frequency at which the surface resonates, and at least transforms the problem if not eliminates it.

Years and years ago, I encountered a sound-related problem in a "wheel shop" (an inland towboat propeller repair facility). They were having problems cutting down the sound volumes generated whilst grinding away on the blades being worked.

The solution was a fifty pound lead weight set up so that it hung from the blade being ground, thus changing the frequency at which the blade was resonant, and thus diminishing the sound by over a third.
 
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