Klarinet Archive - Posting 000620.txt from 1996/01

From: Christopher G Zello <czello@-----.EDU>
Subj: Repair work
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 1996 16:25:52 -0500

> >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
>
Your choice to use synthetic pads is little bit vague, are you referring
to Valentino pads?

At present I am working as a woodwind repair apprentice at a music store
here in Milwaukee, and since the fall my view on the whole repair issue
has changed drastically. I'm not sure exactly where you live and the
shops in your area, but there are many factors you need to reconsider
before you decide not to have someone locally work on your instruments.

Knowing how the replace the pads is one thing, but are you well versed in
getting the pad to seat, adjusting screw tension & spring tension, the
amount of glue you want on the back of a pad, the proper thickness of pad
needed for that cup, and a hundred other things which people who do this
for a living know??

By saying that you will only have someone who is under the auspices of
Buffet work on your instrument, that seems a little vague as well. You
would be shocked to find that if you were to call Buffet, they can also
provide recommendations for people in and around your locale to take your
clarinet to to have work done.

My question to you in return is: What will you do the day of a big
concert when you have a tenon cork fall off or a spring break? This is
similiar to the logic behind buying your gas from a local/neighborhood
gas station despite their nickel a gallon higher prices, which you'll
appreciate the morning you go out to your car on a cold winter morning to
not have it start. You will be able to call them for help.

Your local music shop's hesitation to sell you a pad might be because
they can examine the rest of the clarinet to see what will match exactly,
and do a great job. Not because they are a bunch of idiots.

Christopher Zello

czello@-----.edu
http://www.uwm.edu/~czello/

   
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