 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Darktide
Date: 2008-01-08 15:59
Hey everyone,
I'm new to the board. I've got an interesting question. A few years ago I bought a Three Star metal clarinet. I tried playing it and found that even though it was overhauled with new pads it didn't play well (at all really). So I put it away and let it be for a while. Finding myself with some free time yesterday I pulled it back out to give it a good exam. I found that a lot of the pads were not sealing properly (due to poor alignment and uneven seating). The pads are white and look kind of like styrofoam, I know they are pads and not half bad ones as I've used them before. My question ends up being, if I were to find a softer pad, do you think it would provide a better seal? And if so, what should I look for in a pad. I took one key off and heated it up so I could re adjust the pad and once I got it seated a little better it started to play a lot better but I've noticed that a lot of pads have a hard time seating properly. I know that Three Star was supposed to just be a school level horn and I'm not sure I really want to put a whole lot of money into it as I'm quite happy with my Selmer c100 which is serving me quite well. I just wanted to get some opinions from a knowledgeable source. Thanks in advance.
Jay
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2008-01-08 21:43
As long as the pads have a surface with the POTENTIAL to seal, and SOME degree of resilience/accommodation, the type of pad is nowhere near as important as the way it is installed and the pad/key cup is adjusted.
Good installation and adjustment ensures that pads seal well, with minimal finger pressure. It seems that this was not done well.
Another issue with metal clarinets is that it is quite common for the soldering of the tone holes to the body to fail, just to the extent that the joints leak. This is probably from galvanic corrosion because of having dissimilar metals in contact, in the presence of an electrolyte (moisture).
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Author: Darktide
Date: 2008-01-10 00:53
Thanks for the reply. After toying around with it a little more today I definitely see that you are correct about the key cup adjustments. It seems like quite a bit of them are off. I managed to correct some of them for the time being by kind of tilting the pad in the cup but I know that that is not a permanent fix. I'm going to have to do some reading on how exactly to adjust the key cups so that they line up properly and have the correct angles when they meet tone holes. I didn't notice anything around the tone holes to suggest a failure of a solder joint but I didn't look for that in particular. I'll have to do that tomorrow. Can you point me in a direction for some good maintenance tips (specifically the key cup alignment)? I've seen some repair kits that come with manuals but they are ~$90 and I only paid about $30 for this clarinet and only $100 for my Selmer. Thanks for your advice so far.
Jay
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