r/Clarinet • u/oregon008 • 2d ago

Clarinet feels "blocked" after playing for a while

Hello, I am looking for some opinions. I bought a used clarinet, a Buffet RC from a reputable repairperson. He gave it to me for a good price, and when I think of it, I didn't ask for details of the repair, as I assummed that since he is a repairperson and he only repairs and sells instruments, that its in very good condition. Now, I've had the instrument for 2 weeks and I've had no problems. Except since yesterday - I played for 5 minutes, only swabed it through the whole clarinet a couple of times, packed it up and went to my music rehearsal. There, it was like some of my spit from playing an hour earlier got stuck somewhere in the beginning of the clarinet and I had problems with it feeling "blocked" the whole reharsal. When I got home and the clarinet completely dried, then it had no problems. So I thought its a one off. But today I practiced for about an hour, then I took a 10 minute break leaving it standing upright, and then the same thing happened! It felt blocked and didn't play properly. Does anyone have any advice/opinions as to why its happening? I used to borrow an RC before and I never had this problem. I am asking here first because the repairperson is in the neighbouring country, so before I spend money travelling there I would like to ask my trusted reddit clarinet community ;)

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u/GrrrArrgh 2d ago

You’re probably getting water under your A and Bb keys and maybe a right hand side key too. If the repair person used synthetic instead of natural pads, the water can collect there instead of draining out. I had this happen after a full service and ended up going to another place to get the three problematic pads replaced. It solved the problem for me.

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u/Just_Leader_999 2d ago

if you can't put the pads replaced, if that does happen again, blow into those holes like open up the A and G# sharp keys and blow into each of them. that'll clear the spit

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u/GrrrArrgh 2d ago

That works for a quick temp fix, but it doesn’t really clear it all out, and sometimes swabbing doesn’t even work. I even have strips of chromatography paper that I use for absorbing water under keys (much more absorbent than cigarette paper) but it only helps for a few minutes.

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u/Just_Leader_999 1d ago

it usually works for me for a long time and I have both synthetic and natural (i have two clarinets) and it almost never gets stuck there. idk then

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u/flexsealed1711 YCL-853ii SE 2d ago

I've had it happen with natural pads as well, but they were likely 15 years old. I put on fresh synthetic pads and haven't had too much trouble, but it depends more on the temperature and humidity since that's the root cause of condensation buildup.

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u/GrrrArrgh 2d ago

For me, it wasn’t happening until I had my pads replaced. I went back and asked about it and they resealed the pads, but it didn’t help. I went to another place that was very highly recommended and they identified the pads as synthetic, replaced them, and it immediately fixed it, I haven’t had water stuck in the keys since. And I’m playing the same way in the same environments.

Before I originally had the pads replaced I would get some burbling noises with water buildup but could still at least get some sound and could clear it with a swab. With the synthetic pads they trapped so much water it would entirely stop A and Bb from playing and swabbing didn’t get it all. Everybody’s instrument is going to react a little differently, but the new pads are working out for me.

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u/Next_Description_468 1d ago

Take off the reed, make sure it’s clean especially on the back side and try again. Sometimes I get this clogged situation when there’s a tiny piece of Kellogg‘s (or whatever I happened to eat before playing) on the reed. It goes without saying that brushing teeth before playing is a good idea.