Klarinet Archive - Posting 000599.txt from 1995/03

From: Gary Bisaga <gary@-----.ORG>
Subj: Question about pad cement damage
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 1995 15:31:07 -0500

OOOPS! I was in a rehearsal Wednesday night when the small B-nat/F-#
pad popped out. I tried my cigarette lighter but nothing doing; I
guess the glue was old. So I got out the pad cement. Due to personal
ham-handedness, I managed to make a puddle of cement on the bottom
part of the key and the wood in the area of the hole. So, I went
about trying to clean it up. I wiped off what I could, then with
water got off most of the gunk. But a bunch still remained, including
a crust around the hole.

Rehearsal obviously being over for me, I went right home and used what
I figured to be the next gentlest solvent, namely rubbing alcohol.
This seemed to take pretty much all the gunk off, but the finish in
the area of the hole seems to be of a lower shine and otherwise a
little different (kind of bumpy in one nearby place) than other parts
of the instrument. (Of course, the instrument is fairly old, and I
hadn't noticed exactly the finish in that particular area before so I
can't say how much worse it is than before.)

The question is: have I done any real damage to the instrument? If
so, is there anything I can do to fix it? Can (or should) anything be
done about the finish itself? Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Gary