Thanks! I got my aunt's R13. Her late husband was a US Navy musician in WWI, and passed away in 1977. They owned a music store in Colorado. Prior to that he had a shop in Kansas. This horn had been sealed with bee's wax, but I am guessing that was before the days of superglue. Stewmac has a black epoxy, and I have pigmented superglue with ebony dust, & I think it may come in black. I am guessing that wax has permeated the wood, & I am in for trouble.
It's pretty much the same way we fix cracks on violin tops. In most of the cases, the spruce cracks in a very clean way and can be resealed in a manner that never shows the crack actually once was there. But we are not using cyanoacrylates or epoxy, a simple alimentary gelatin (the ones you use for jelly and jams) dissolved in hot water is enough. When the water evaporates, the gelatin, made out of collagen, replace the broken bounds between cellulose fibers ; having roughly the same properties, the repair is completely harmless to the sound ! Would such an "organic glue" would work on very thin cracks on ebony ? Thanks for sharing your knowledge ! Regards from France !
Tina, if the techniques provided in this video are not sufficient for your problem or if you are not experienced with these types of repairs, we suggest you take your instrument to a qualified repair person. Best of luck.
I have a late 1800s mode wooden clarinet. The bell was horribly cracked on 2 sides length wise as well as some right below the tenon. The previous owner attempted to fix it inside & out very poorly with some form of adhesive, superglue? Maybe. It’s baaaaadly done to point I had to sand it down and smooth it out. That said, should I attempt using a superglue if done properly? What can I use to re-oil/wax the surface post repair to restore its wooden lustre?
So, I have this crack on my clarinet above my A key since I got the instrument when I was in 6th grade, and I've lived with it to this day. None of the repairmen I've taken it to have fixed it. Would you recommend using super glue on it? It doesn't go into the tone hole for the A key, but it resides a few centimeters above it.
Will this work on a cracked barrel? My barrel has a gaping hole from top to bottom. You can really see the crack on the outside. I did use some cork to clogged it out of desperation because I had a rehearsal. I cleaned out the cork grease, but I will probably use some nail polish remover to break up the grease.
Hello sir. Today I bought a beginner's clarinet but when I got home and tried to put it together as they did it in the shop so quickly, it did not work. got stuck. and as I tried to take it out, I think I caused two tiny cracks on the barrell (upper part of it) and on the bell (also on upper part of it where the connection is).. These are not deep cracks, almost invisible, but working with wood before, I can see that there is this very very very thin line of crack, almost invisible, like the thinnest hair. Do you think that they should also go through the same process immediately? I think it happened because the instrument shop was cooler than outside, and summer in Turkey is so hot and damp, the wood expanded when I arrived home and as the corks and everything is still new and tough, I slightly damaged it while trying to put it together and take it off when I got really frustrated. Please give me some advise. They didn't tell me what to do in a first day at the shop, so I didnt know how to handle it. I felt so bad, I could not even have the courage to try to put it together again, now letting it sit in the box. I've been waiting for this for years and now in the first day making such a mistake is huge for me.. I am so sad, even cried for it. Please let me know what is the best option? should I take it back and ask them to fix it, or can I use the same system you do here.. there is not even a hole in between the crack but I think it will happen if I dont do anything about it. Is it safe to play it that way or even try to assemble it? Please help me.
Great tip but I do have to add that this will not prevent it from getting worse. This only seals the crack in case of a leak in the crack. IF your wooden instrument has a crack the long term fix is to get it pinned or banned. Although you are correct in saying that most techs. will use super glue as part of the solution it is only a component of the solution.
I had a crack on my clarinet. It didn't go through all the way to the bore. It got fixed, but after a week of being fixed, it decided to come back. PLEASE!!! Help me! T_T
Totally didnt think the Army would show me how to repair my clarinet! Go Army
+A Thrifty Mom As a french oboist, I would never expected the >US< >ARMY< to show me that either. Hahaha.
thank you for your videos, i recently bought a clarinet off of ebay and been fixing it up by all the helpful info you have on your videos
Thanks! I got my aunt's R13. Her late husband was a US Navy musician in WWI, and passed away in 1977. They owned a music store in Colorado. Prior to that he had a shop in Kansas. This horn had been sealed with bee's wax, but I am guessing that was before the days of superglue. Stewmac has a black epoxy, and I have pigmented superglue with ebony dust, & I think it may come in black. I am guessing that wax has permeated the wood, & I am in for trouble.
THANK YOU!
An oboe-maker friend told me to look for the very thinnest, runniest glue available at a hobby store. I found that this works really well.
It's pretty much the same way we fix cracks on violin tops. In most of the cases, the spruce cracks in a very clean way and can be resealed in a manner that never shows the crack actually once was there.
But we are not using cyanoacrylates or epoxy, a simple alimentary gelatin (the ones you use for jelly and jams) dissolved in hot water is enough.
When the water evaporates, the gelatin, made out of collagen, replace the broken bounds between cellulose fibers ; having roughly the same properties, the repair is completely harmless to the sound !
Would such an "organic glue" would work on very thin cracks on ebony ?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge !
Regards from France !
Grenadilla has much too smooth of grain for organic glued to bond effectively, and most of all, it isn’t airtight like woodwinds need
Tina, if the techniques provided in this video are not sufficient for your problem or if you are not experienced with these types of repairs, we suggest you take your instrument to a qualified repair person. Best of luck.
I have a late 1800s mode wooden clarinet. The bell was horribly cracked on 2 sides length wise as well as some right below the tenon. The previous owner attempted to fix it inside & out very poorly with some form of adhesive, superglue? Maybe. It’s baaaaadly done to point I had to sand it down and smooth it out. That said, should I attempt using a superglue if done properly? What can I use to re-oil/wax the surface post repair to restore its wooden lustre?
We recommend taking your clarinet to your local expert repairman.
So, I have this crack on my clarinet above my A key since I got the instrument when I was in 6th grade, and I've lived with it to this day. None of the repairmen I've taken it to have fixed it. Would you recommend using super glue on it? It doesn't go into the tone hole for the A key, but it resides a few centimeters above it.
Will this work on a cracked barrel? My barrel has a gaping hole from top to bottom. You can really see the crack on the outside. I did use some cork to clogged it out of desperation because I had a rehearsal. I cleaned out the cork grease, but I will probably use some nail polish remover to break up the grease.
Hello sir. Today I bought a beginner's clarinet but when I got home and tried to put it together as they did it in the shop so quickly, it did not work. got stuck. and as I tried to take it out, I think I caused two tiny cracks on the barrell (upper part of it) and on the bell (also on upper part of it where the connection is).. These are not deep cracks, almost invisible, but working with wood before, I can see that there is this very very very thin line of crack, almost invisible, like the thinnest hair. Do you think that they should also go through the same process immediately? I think it happened because the instrument shop was cooler than outside, and summer in Turkey is so hot and damp, the wood expanded when I arrived home and as the corks and everything is still new and tough, I slightly damaged it while trying to put it together and take it off when I got really frustrated. Please give me some advise. They didn't tell me what to do in a first day at the shop, so I didnt know how to handle it. I felt so bad, I could not even have the courage to try to put it together again, now letting it sit in the box. I've been waiting for this for years and now in the first day making such a mistake is huge for me.. I am so sad, even cried for it. Please let me know what is the best option? should I take it back and ask them to fix it, or can I use the same system you do here.. there is not even a hole in between the crack but I think it will happen if I dont do anything about it. Is it safe to play it that way or even try to assemble it? Please help me.
Thank you for this instruction. Many greetings from OK-Dreamband. CD "Clarinet-Dreams" is available for download (iTunes, amazon).
keep in mind that if you have a wooden instrument, acetone WILL take the finish off. but if your instrument is plastic it'll be fine.
There's no finish on wooden ones. Only on really rare occasions. Bassoons are an exception of course.
Acetone eats plastic@@tamasfoldesi2358
Great tip but I do have to add that this will not prevent it from getting worse. This only seals the crack in case of a leak in the crack. IF your wooden instrument has a crack the long term fix is to get it pinned or banned. Although you are correct in saying that most techs. will use super glue as part of the solution it is only a component of the solution.
Exactly!!!
I had a crack on my clarinet. It didn't go through all the way to the bore. It got fixed, but after a week of being fixed, it decided to come back. PLEASE!!! Help me! T_T
Oh no! Sounds like it needs another fix. Also, it may be good to consider a humidifier for your case. Have you tried that?
super glue doesn't work anymore. It used to
I'm safer from this. I have a vito resotone 3 and its plastic!. Not wood so no cracks for me
Stating the obvious: nail polish remover is not the way to go. Spend the 12 bucks and buy some pure Acetone.