Posted by Klaus on November 11, 2002 at 14:09:34:
In Reply to: HB Yorkcicles posted by ...morbidly curious on November 09, 2002 at 19:00:00:
A similar discussion has been up on one of the horn lists. Ken Pope, repairman in Jamaica Plain, MA, has allowed me to relay this posting of his:
"When I worked at Osmun 12+ years ago we did some research on cryogenic
freezing. Luckily I have an uncle who was the Dean of Metallurgy at
UPenn. I called him up concerning all the claims that people made about
what the freezing does, and his response was: " Well, they're absolutely
right - however (and it's a big 'however") the moment it returns to room
temperature it returns to it's original state. Now, if it were a
God-fearing-metal (i.e. ferrous - iron , carbon steel etc.) then it
would be a permanent change" So, in other words, the only part that
might be affected would be the tin in the 60/40 lead/tin solder used.
The brass itself would be unaffected
I like to tell people that if they give me their horn, and $300, it'll
play differently. Anyone who spends that amount of money doing
something like that to their horn will be convinced that it is
different. But then again - anyone who parts with their horn for a day
or more will think it feels different anyhow. Which begs the question,
does that mean it doesn't do anything? If a player pays that money,
gets the horn back, and thinks it plays 'better' and the player
themselves plays better, well, then it might be money well spent. (I
haven't been sufficiently convinced of this argument to actually offer
cryogenic freezing in my own shop). Also, I have to say when people
make the claim that it can make a horn better, but not worse (that the
effects are only positive ones - consistently) then I raise an eyebrow
or two.
Dick Merewether (Paxman designer) told me a story of a repair technician
in London. For a number of years the LSO would bring their
contra-bassoon to his shop for work, and since his shop was so small he
had no place to store it so he would lift up a floor board, and slide it
into the space beneath. Well, invariably he would forget about it,
until they would come to pick it up - whereupon he would hand it back to
them (having done nothing to it) and they would play it and fawn over
the wonderful changes/work..."