Klarinet Archive - Posting 000985.txt from 2004/07

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Cheap re-pads
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 14:32:31 -0400

In a message dated 7/28/2004 12:56:21 PM Central Daylight Time,
kwolman@-----.com writes:
Repads run from $110 or so up. That will usually cure whatever ails the
> typical horn.
Beware of cheap "re-pads". Recently I had a customer send me a clarinet that
he swore was re-padded recently. I actually thought he had been cheated at
the store, the pads looked like they had been through WWII (and maybe VietNam).
The clarinet still needed work, something were just not right, so I agreed
to work on it.

Well, it turns out the pads were new. But the clarinet (over 40 years old,
used by several generations, and never overhauled) was extremely dirty. There
was gunk in the toneholes and under all the keys. The oil in the keys was
thick and black and gritty.

Obviously, someone had slapped on a new set of pads, never cleaned anything,
and in the process go dirt all over the pads. The job looked like hell, and
the clarinet played like hell.

LOL. It's making me mad all over again that the shop took this guys money
and left the horn so filthy!

Oftentimes, I will spend up to 4 hours cleaning a clarinet, before I ever
replace a pad, cork or felt. The toneholes get cleaned out, the bore gets
cleaned and polished, the grit comes off the rods and pivot screws and from inside
the hinge tubes. Old crud comes out of the tone hole sockets and they are
then refinished if they need it.

That's where an overhaul BEGINS!

Walter Grabner
www.clarinetXpress.com
World-class clarinet mouthpieces

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org