Here I go again, this time on "blowout"

Forever, forever, and forever, clarinetists talk about "blowout".

What is blowout? It depends on who you talk to.  

Is there such a thing? It depends on who you talk to.

Some say that a clarinet is blown out when the tuning changes. Some say a clarinet is blown out when the sound has become "dull". Some say a clarinet is blown out when the clarinet is less responsive. Take your pick or mix and match--or add your own criterion. Nobody agrees.

What has happened when a clarinet is supposed to be blown out? Some think that it's because swabbing microscopically wears down the bore or polishes the bore (which some people want, but others abhor). Some think that the constant vibration of playing changes the wood somehow.  Some don't have any theories, but stick to their guns that there is such a thing as blowout.

None of these, nor any of the other explanations we hear, has been proven, scientifically or empirically.
Some people are convinced that a clarinet is only good for a few years before it "blows out." Some people (like me) don't think there is such a thing as blowout.

If blowout is real, I want to know how anyone can possibly know that an instrument has changed its playing qualities gradually over two years, five years, or <enter your estimate here>? 

I didn't wake up one day shocked to find out that I'd suddenly gotten fat, it happened so slowly that I didn't notice. If there is such a thing as blowout, over that span of time, as slow as the process would be, how would you know? How could you possibly remember how your horn played years and years after you bought it?

I think that there are two reasons to tell yourself that your clarinet is blown out:

• The bore has changed very soon after you bought the horn, but you never noticed.

• You want an excuse to buy a new clarinet.

Cheers!

The Staccato Samurai (Who's never had a blown-out clarinet, nor who'd know it if there was such a thing and he did.)