No. My metal clarinet sounds very much like my wood clarinets, not at all like a sax.

You can try to get whatever sound you like from whatever material, but clarinets sound like clarinets.

 

...
Would I get a wood sound from Wood, and get a Plastic sound from Plastic?
..

Yes, of course you would - as long as you use them as percussion instruments.

 

Less weight does make a difference with some people.

 

Hi,

Does Wood Clarinet much heavier than Plastic? (I mean in the feeling that after you practice Clarinet an hour continuously).

I just read another thread about Clarinet strap and there mentioned that plastic is lighter than Wood.

Would that (the weight of clarinet) be significant in long practice?

 

http://www.ridenourclarinetproducts.com/grenadillamyth.htm

 

Hi,

thanks. I read the article.

So, the so-called Plastic Clarinet is actually "hard rubber"? Specifically, does Yamaha 250 or Buffet B12 are both made of "hard rubber"?

 

I don't think so. The yamaha is ABS resin, which is synthetic material. Hard rubber is a natural material.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Yeah, just looked it up, ABS resin is made of several different chemicals. So it is not hard rubber.

 

I have a B12. It is significantly lighter than my R13 (or any other of my wood clarinets).

that said, alot of the "woody" sound is obtained from the reed and a good mpc and wood barrel would make it sound even better.

If you do not have a very good accoustically trained ear there could be very little difference in the tonal qualities .. and then distance may have effects.

i'm waiting for Carl to make a xylophone from clarinet joints .....

 

i'm waiting for Carl to make a xylophone from clarinet joints .....

I was close, till evilbay pulled the C/D pair's auction at the last moment.:x

 

You are correct, although most Hard Rubber used has at least some synthetic (plastic) in the mix.

Hard Rubber is usually used today for intermediate or better horns as an alternative (and a VERY suitable one in my opinion) to wood.

Plastic/resin is used almost solely for student instruments (although I have played several of the better plastic bodied models, and rate them better than the more "traditional" clarinet crowd typically does).

The performer can often detect some differences in the way a clarinet sounds based on material, but very few listeners can, based solely on that parameter. The same is largely true with mouthpiece material.

I hand make various bagpipes (one of the most conservative, tradition driven music fraternities), and that community has experimented with just about every wood and and other material for the components (involving both conical and cylindrical bores, single and double reeds) for quite some time now. Many makers now offer alternative materials to natural wood, usually Delrin/Polypenco. The difference in tone is minimal to non existent.

African Blackwood/Grenadilla, Honduran Rosewood, and Cocobolo (with Lignum Vitae and Ebony being popular in the past) are the most popular woods for these pipes as well.

 

I hand make various bagpipes (one of the most conservative, tradition driven music fraternities), and that community has experimented with just about every wood and and other material for the components (involving both conical and cylindrical bores, single and double reeds) for quite some time now. Many makers now offer alternative materials to natural wood, usually Delrin/Polypenco. The difference in tone is minimal to non existent.

Yeah, but I bet the bag material makes a big difference in the sound.

 

You forgot to add the smiley, as that is of course far from true.

 

I did the plumbing on my kitchen remodel a few years back and used ABS pipes for the new sewer lines.

 

And your sewer line would have sounded no better if it were made from timber.

 

Hi

What about the material of the MPC Yamaha 4C come along with the Clarinet? Is that Plastic or hard rubber?

 

4C - plastic
4CM - hard rubber

 

Let me add my two cents here and give you more of a performers impression of the differences between a plastic and wood clarinet. The following is more of my opinions than anything scientific.

1. A wood clarinet sounds fuller bodied, mellower, and lusher than a plastic clarinet.
2. The physical feel of the wood clarinet is better than that of plastic. I find them less slippery, bigger in diameter, and slightly heavier than plastic. The wood also seem to be slightly better balanced weight wise than the plastic. The weight of the wood makes the clarinet easier to handle. The wood clarinets seem to be bigger in diameter than the plastic. This may be an outer diameter issue. I have played some plastic that seem to have a bigger inner diameter but appear to have a smaller outer diameter.
3. I tend to tire faster playing a plastic clarinet than a wood clarinet. I feel like this is due to the resistance of the two. I always feel that the plastic clarinets are even more free blowing than the wood varieties. I love a free blowing clarinet, but not to the point that I have gotten with the plastic I have played.
4. I find I get have better intonation and control with a wood clarinet than a plastic clarinet.

These are just my impressions and opinions. Nothing more. I will never go back to playing a plastic clarinet. To put it simply, I find it easier to play a wood clarinet and I think the wood clarinet sounds better.

 

Ridenour also talks about the benets of resistance in a clarinet:
http://www.ridenourclarinetproducts.com/lorelei.html
His site is well worth browsing.

 

If a plastic clarinet has less resistance, that is most likely because it is a student clarinet, with its critical dimensions designed for the needs of relative beginners. It so happens, that most of us remain as relative beginners.

What remains, is that nay differences in the sound on well designed clarinets, due to material, are so slight that most people would barely notice, or not notice at all.

If I do my practice, I can sound great on a plastic clarinet, providing it is well adjusted. If I don't practice, I still sound stink on a wooden clarinet, even well adjusted.

 

Yes, to answer your question, wood vs plastic clarinet material has been discussed many times here. Plastic clarinets tend to have design and execution issues mostly related to making them cheaper to make to hit a market price point. The nest plastic clarinet I ever played was a YCL-250, which was beautifully designed and well executed. Very in tune, excellent tonally due mostly, I think, to its barrel. It suffers from small keywork designed for young hands. I think the body material makes little difference, buy I'm sticking with my Leblanc Opus/Backun.

 

OK. I've been resisting but I've got to tell my story.

I recently had my old R13 restored and also bought a used Vito for playing outdoors and general carrying around. Yes, the R13 was much, much better sounding. Woodier, warmer, more powerful.

But then the VITO had some good qualities too: freeblowing, lightweight, cheap. So I took an old Moenig barrel and stuck it on the Vito. The sound got much better. More resistance too. More even blowing.

Found a darker mouthpiece and a darker reed (Ted Johnson and Gonzalez). Got MUCH darker and woodier sound on the cheap Vito. Dug up my old Rick Sayer Kasper 13 L and used the Gonzalez 3 reed: less dark but even bigger sound!

I wouldn't completely discount the value of a plastic horn. They're cheap and replaceable. (Just don't lose you prized mouthpiece.) The Vito in partcular is quite consistent and remarkably playable. Plastic great for playing outdoors in bad weather.

If you want wood on the cheap, try a wood Normandy.

 

If you want wood on the cheap, try a wood Normandy.

As long as you don't get a rotten one

 

On the issue of barrel importance, I see that Ridenour is now offering an ABS student clarinet--but the barrel is hard rubber.

 

I recently acquired an old Prefer Silver Throat Deluxe clarinet -- which actually is made from hard rubber and not plastic. To my ears, it has a better quality of sound than any plastic clarinet I've played.

While I respect the opinions of those who firmly believe material does not matter, I have yet to find a plastic or hard rubber clarinet that has the level of resonance and especially the TONAL RING I get with a pro-level clarinet made from high quality grenadilla wood -- especially, 40 or 50 year old grenadilla wood.

I very much like the quality of sound I get with a Grabner K14 mouthpiece on the Prufer. Nice big sound and it sounds like "me" on clarinet. However, when I move the K14 over to my Couesnon Monopole wood clarinet the quality of sound is signficantly more resonant and ringing. In other words, it's a more resonant "me".

One problem in comparing clarinets like this is there are significant bore and design differences between my Prufer and Couesnon clarinets. To my best knowledge, I don't think Couesnon ever made hard rubber clarinets -- at least, I've never heard about them using hard rubber. But, if they did and I could get my hands on a Couesnon Monopole hard rubber clarinet with exact measurements as my wood model would it have a similar resonance and tonal ring? THAT would be a test I'd love to make.

But, as it stands, I have yet to find a plastic or hard rubber clarinet that will make me switch from my treasured Couesnon Monopole.

Roger

 

I know there have been countless debates on SOTW as to whether instrument and accessory composition affect the tonal qualities produced. Evidently material composition does have an effect on the sound produced by violins according to a recent scientific study using a CT scanner on the wood density of Stradaveri violins. The growth rings were more even in the wood used from the 1600s than the wood used in contemporary professional quality violins.

Reuters Article

 

Is there a wood-made mouthpiece?

 

Yes, there are, but wood is not terribly desirable for the majority of players. It isn't stable enough that most players will put up with it, and they are pretty expensive.

 

A few things.

The body of the clarinet is much thicker and smaller than that of a violin, AND it is round. Both these things mean that the wood does not couple with the vibration of the air column and add to the sound in any appreciable way.

There might be two explanations for why a wood clarinet sounds different from one made of plastic or ebonite. First is the fact that the inside of the bore is not completely smooth due to the wood grain. Second is the fact that wood is not as dimensionally stable as the artificial materials used to make clarinet bodies and can change over time, meaning that the bore profile acutally changes somewhat.

It should be stressed that many professionals prefer the Buffet Greenline over the wooden version, or at least find it perfectly acceptable for professional use.

Toby

 

A few things.

The body of the clarinet is much thicker and smaller than that of a violin, AND it is round. Both these things mean that the wood does not couple with the vibration of the air column and add to the sound in any appreciable way.

There might be two explanations for why a wood clarinet sounds different from one made of plastic or ebonite. First is the fact that the inside of the bore is not completely smooth due to the wood grain.... Toby

So Roger, have you tried dragging coarse steel wool through a plastic clarinet to see what it does?

 

No. The idea hasn't crossed my mind. Ha ha ha

One thing I find interesting.... I absolutely love my Yamaha 221 II bass clarinet. It has a very decent quality of sound -- especially, with a Grabner LB mouthpiece. The 221 is plastic. However, I haven't found a plastic soprano clarinet yet that made me happy. Curious!

Toby, there are times when I feel the body of my clarinet vibrating under my fingers. It seems to me that your answer does not explain the tonal ring that one can have with high quality grenadilla wood. This is a big factor for me. I don't think that wood grain in the bore is the reason for that tonal quality. I suspect that a number of factors go into tonal ring. After all, some grenadilla wood clarinets have more ring than others. That said, I have yet to find a plastic or hard rubber clarinet that has a ringing sound. If there is one I'd LOVE to try it.

Roger

 

No. The idea hasn't crossed my mind. Ha ha ha

One thing I find interesting.... I absolutely love my Yamaha 221 II bass clarinet. It has a very decent quality of sound -- especially, with a Grabner LB mouthpiece. The 221 is plastic. However, I haven't found a plastic soprano clarinet yet that made me happy. Curious!

Toby, there are times when I feel the body of my clarinet vibrating under my fingers. It seems to me that your answer does not explain the tonal ring that one can have with high quality grenadilla wood. This is a big factor for me. I don't think that wood grain in the bore is the reason for that tonal quality. I suspect that a number of factors go into tonal ring. After all, some grenadilla wood clarinets have more ring than others. That said, I have yet to find a plastic or hard rubber clarinet that has a ringing sound. If there is one I'd LOVE to try it.

Roger

Is it tonal ring or imagined tonal ring?

Certainly a nice wood clarinet feels different than a plastic one. That might contribute to the overall impression of the clarinet. Most probably, however, is the fact that a good wood clarinet is probably made much better than most all plastic clarinets. There is no physical reason that a wood clarinet and a plastic clarinet would sound different, if the bore geometry is the same. And please pay attention as to whether you are actually feeling the wood vibrate, or are feeling the air column vibrate through the keys and fingertips. The wood does vibrate, but only about a millionth of a meter: far too little to contribute to or take anything away from the sound.

BTW, have you tried a Greenline R13?

Toby

 

Ringing sound?!?

Have you tried metal?

(Yes I know you have, but ringing comes from metal. Wood thuds, cracks, and can resonate (marimba) but metal and crystal are the only things I am aware of which both ring and are used for instruments.)