Klarinet Archive - Posting 000614.txt from 1996/01

From: Fred Jacobowitz <fredj@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: your mail
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 1996 13:09:50 -0500

Paul,
To answer the actual question you raise, it's simply a matter of
greed. The stores want your money. The more, the better. They can make
much more money by having you pay not only for the pads but for the labor
of putting them in. In all fairness, the store might just be avoiding
problems by not letting you screw things up with incompetent home repairs
and then blaming them for not telling you... (tho I doubt it). However, the
situation is more complicated. Repadding
is not like changing a car tire. One needs an awful lot of skill to seat
the pad just right. Often you have to re-surface the tone hole itself,
which entails actually re-carving the wood a little. I doubt you are
qualified to do this. Nor do you probably have the correct tools. I would
estimate that at least half the time you repad a whole clarinet you need
to re-surface at least one tone hole or the horn just won't seal. I
am a very experienced pro and I have actually done some pad replacements
myself (including my own horn) but I am NOT qualified to deal with
resurfacing a tone hole. Now, you might be VERY justified in having no
faith the stores repairman (lord knows there are a fair amount of
butchers out there) but that doesn't mean you can't get excellent service
on your instrument. There are some superb repairmen out there (including
Clark Fobes, who often responds to this list) who will service you horn
by mail order. If it is packed correctly and shipped UPS insured, you
should have no problem.
In short, the rule is, DON'T DO ANYTHING MORE THAN EMERGENCY WORK
YOURSELF!!!! You could very well do more damage than is already there and
you probably won't be able to do it right, even if you don't do any
damage. I do not do anything more dangerous than putting on new bumper
and tenon corks (and occasionally quieting down a click or two with
fishskin) even though I know a thing or two. I am simply not qualified. I
don't have the tools and I don't do it often enough to have perfected the
proper skills (and I'll bet I get more opportunities, between all my
students, than you do to some repairs). One should leave the repairs to
the pros, if at all possible.

Fred Jacobowitz
Instructor of Clarinet, Saxophone, Peabody Preparatory

On Sun, 28 Jan 1996, From the =?iso-8859-1?Q?S=E1nchez?= Computer wrote:

> >Could someone tell me why music stores won't sell me synthetic pads to put
> >on my clarinet when they want to put them on themselves. You see, at
> >school, i have the best clarinet, and i don't like any repairman in a music
> >store that does not work on buffet's (or even sell them, in that matter)
> >even TOUCH it. is it just me, or should i let a repairman in a music store
> >work on it?
> >i know how to replace the pads myself!
> >
> >paul Sanchez
> >sanchez@-----.com
>