Klarinet Archive - Posting 000723.txt from 1999/08

From: CEField@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Leather clarinet pads
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 19:45:59 -0400

Barb, my experience is more limited than many repairers on the list, but
leather pads that are properly installed should in no way detract from a
clarinet's playability or sound. When I work with leather pads, I have to
take into account the fact that they are thicker than "ordinary" skin pads.
If I were to install a leather pad too close to a tone hole, for instance, it
could make that note (and notes played by closely associated keys) stuffy and
out of tune.

I use leather pads sometimes on keys associated with tone holes that are on
the side of the clarinet and tend to pick up moisture. The left-hand sliver
("banana") key would be an example. Leather pads seem to last longer than
skin pads. I also have used leather pads on some big keys on the lower joint
where there were tiny but important defects in the tone hole itself. Because
leather is more forgiving (and I don't know how to reface tone holes!), a
leather pad can sometimes seal well whereas a bladder pad will leak.

I even used saxophone pads with rivets once in a pinch on my own clarinet but
we won't go there...

Learning bit by bit,
Cindy

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