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Wind Instruments Parts
Where woodwind joints fit in an other, cork makes them airtight usually, or formerly a wound and impregnated thread. I try heatshrink sleeve at my bassoon's bocal presently.
The tighter fitting immobilizes the bocal as I wanted, but tighter cork would do it too. The result is stiff and can minimize the dead volume, which should ease the altissimo, but up to C# (just below the Sacre) where the comfort zone of the musician and the reed end presently, I notice no difference; maybe things change at higher notes.
These are the bassoon bocal without its cork, pieces of heatshrink sleeve, the bocal with the sleeves, and a zoom.
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The Chinese made the material affordable. It comes in many diameters and colours, length is commonly up to 1m. The diameter shrinks strongly and irreversibly at heat, from a hairdryer, a soldering iron, or with care from a lighter. No skills needed.
Two plies happened to fit at my bocal, first with grease, later without. At first try, the shrunk sleeve moved around the bocal, so I held it with instant glue, which could be applied because the bocal is conical.
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What can improve?
Each ply is too thick and stiff for an adjustment, I had luck. Also, the conical bocal holds in an inverted cone at the bassoon. Maybe double-sided adhesive tape below the sleeve can adjust the diameter and slope if it resists the heat. Or a thread wound below the sleeve, which would give some elasticity.
Heatshrink tape exists too, which enables big diameters, but I expect leaks where the tape ends. Below a sleeve maybe. Would it be thinner?
Inner layers could stop before the outer sleeve to provide a smooth, airtight and sturdy taper.
Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy
Last edited by Enthalpy; Jul-18-2020 at 09:02.
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Here's my home-made bassoon balancer. It works for a French bassoon too.
Part of the idea is: hold at the boot for safety, pass through a ring added at the tenor branch for equilibrium.
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The ring is added rather high on the tenor branch and this relieves the left arm. It consists of two turns of adhesive tape around the branch plus the length for a gamma eye. It crosses the concave part of the tenor branch, where it separated over time, which doesn't hurt. A professional embodiment must improve that.
The ring passing between fingers 2L and 3L was only a tiny bit too high, so a longer gamma may enable it.
Sewing thread tightens the gamma. This stabilizes the side position of the gamma to achieve perfect roll equilibrium. Other advantage, the ring doesn't pull sidewise nor away the adhesive tapes at the pictures' left that hold it upwards.
Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy
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Bassoon balancer v3. The string coming from the boot joint is redirected by a loop that now has its ends parallel to the body, while the ring perpendicular to the body passes straight over the loop. This v3 is much easier to build and to adjust.
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Still adhesive tape, about 3 plies. At the loop, two foldings give 90° each, and an added short tape part neutralizes the sticking side.
V3 too provides perfect roll balance and leaves some weight on the left hand, since an attempt with perfect pitch balance was unplayable.
The adhesive tape always separates from the concave portion of the tenor joint, so instead of sticking it there, this time I gave it roughly the loose length left by the spacing to the bass joint.
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Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy
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4c definitive version of my bassoon balancer. Easiest to build and adjust. Time will tell if it's the most durable.
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4 plies of adhesive tape parallel to the tenor joint hold a ring. I superimposed the 4 plies first, holding the first ply between a desk's edge and my fingers. The tape needs some length to hold on itself near the ring. Several turns of a second tape around the joint holds the first tape against the joint as previously.
Duct tape (Gewebeband, toile adhésive) crept and began to tear at the edges. Surgical tape (Pflaster, sparadrap) crept, and the European tan looks silly on African wood too. Plain office adhesive tape is best up to now.
Duct tape and surgical tape crept at a D-shaped ring until holding at a corner, so a round ring is less bad.
Do use the shoelace that holds at the boot! It saved my instrument a dozen times.
Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy
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Interesting reading and pix. Can heatshrink sleeves be sanded?
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