Klarinet Archive - Posting 000887.txt from 2002/11

From: George Kidder <gkidder@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Bass clarinet pads
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 00:01:55 -0500

At 09:47 11/18/02 -0500, I (George Kidder) wrote:
>Two questions for the bass clarinet mavens:
>
>1) What sort of pad is used on the E/B key, the one with the altissimo
>vent in it, on an instrument with regular white leather pads (no rivets)?
>
>2) Does anyone use cork pads on bass clarinets, other than for the
>register key(s)?
>
>Thanks,
>
>George Kidder
>Bar Harbor

I had interesting answers from Forest Aten, pointing out that cork is less
frequent on bass clarinets even on register keys, from Walter Grabner
remarking that he has seen both cork and skin/leather pads on the E/B key,
and has used Valentino pads with a hold drilled in them, and from Bill
Hausmann, who says that he has seen everything on this key, but suspects
that cork would be difficult to keep adjusted. All of these are useful,
but don't answer the question I didn't ask directly (mea culpa!).

Which is: If you use skin/leather, how do you get the hole in it? For
instance, I have a Vito clone (plastic) in which the E.B key has a short
"pipe" running through the key, connecting the altissimo vent with the
middle of the bottom of the cup. The pad (brown kid) has a corresponding
hole in it. Having never seen any mention of special pads in the
supplier's literature, I was wondering how that hole got there. In cork
or in a Valentino pad, I could understand that it could be drilled/punched,
but how about a skin pad? Do you punch those, too, and count on the "pipe"
to keep things in place? Or what?

Nancy Buckman writes:

>I have a friend who makes pads from sheets of silicone bath caulk. He
>smoothes the stuff out in sheets on glass and lets it cure. Then he cuts
>pads from it. They work great for him.

This sets me wondering if he uses any sort of backing on them - I would
think that cured silicone bath calk would be very flexible, and I have a
hard time imagining floating that into a big cup without some sort of stiff
backing on it. But it is an intriguing idea.

Thanks to all of you for your input.

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