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Sraightening a Buny alto clarinet body

2K views 12 replies 7 participants last post by  paulwl 
It is easier to stretch most materials than to compress them.
The bend is likely to have stretched the plastic on the convex side.
If you do manage to heat and straighten it without wrecking it, it is likely to happen by stretching on the currently concave side.
The end result is a clarinet that is slightly longer. That is likely to result in sloppy pivot-screw pivots, the correction of which is unlikely to be DIY territory.

BTW, I (we?) are assuming that the body tube itself is bent. But could it just be that the centre tenon or socket has broken off at some time (or suffered in some other way), and been "repaired" in a way that the tenon is no longer in line with the rest of the instrument. If that is the cause, then correction would depend on just what the problem is.
 
If I get a stock length of plastic rod, even reasonably thick one, and store it suspended from both ends, it gets a bend in it, just from gravity, like timber would.
Many plastics are really not that geometrically stable when under constant load.
I wonder if the case only supports the ends?

Perhaps you could unbend it the same way, especially in the sun. At least put the case upside down!
 
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