 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: contragirl
Date: 2003-10-11 02:50
I am lookin to get my Buffet overhauled, and I need to get the bottom joint repadded. I remember my old teacher having these really nice hand made pads put on his clarinet, but I don't remember who made them. They were yellow, that's all I remember. I think he said the guy who did it was in Ohio.
What are they and is there some place I can order them? Anyone know what I'm talking about, cuz I don't.
Thanks,
Contragirl
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2003-10-11 08:58
Good quality, commercially machine made pads are superb, and yellow is a common offereing, although that is just a dye and does not alter quality.
In the modern world many machine-made items are superior in quality to hand made equivalents - and a lot cheaper!
Personally I can see little point in using hand made pads.
Of course you have to know just what is meant by "hand made".
Perhpas the maker uses a hand punch (a hand 'machine') and hammer (another hand 'machine') to stamp out a circle of felt, cardboard, and membrane. In the same time, a machine could have made hundreds, and there would be no difference between the two.
By hand a person can put these items together and glue the membrane to the cardboard. Some sort of jig (a type of machine part) would be used. A similar jig would be used by a machine. A machine can produce as good a glue job as a person can. Glue jobs on pads almost never fail so this is not an issue.
So what is the difference between machine and hand made, apart form price?
Post Edited (2003-10-11 09:03)
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-10-11 15:16
"Glue jobs on pads almost never fail "
But it does happen......and sometimes during performance. But I would be willing to bet that Gordon's never do.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-10-11 16:21
It seems to me that we have quite a few "pad mfgrs", who have innovations beyond the "standard" bladder/felt and plastics. Is any listing of them available? Of course, statements beyond personal opinions may be fraught with danger, as in the cl examination/recommendation thread, right? Mark? [Delete if desireable!] Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: ron b
Date: 2003-10-11 16:52
Gordon is absolutely correct.
I watched a guy 'make' a flute pad for demonstration purposes. To do it yourself you need backing material, felt and membrane material (you can dye 'fish skin' any color you like). If starting from scratch, you need some kind of circle cutter too. The person I observed used a re-cycled pre cut backing cardboard and cut the membrane and felt to a pretty good circle with little school scissors; doesn't have to be perfect. Then you need some kind of jig or die to hold things together while you carefully apply the right kind of glue in the right place, not too much, not too little, to hold it all together. Compare the time, tedious concentration, mistakes/waste and cost of material against a nicely packaged, consistently near perfect package of store bought pads at a fraction of *your cost*.
The point here is, you can easily understand why hand made pads, if made for commercial purposes, would be very costly.
The only real purpose of the demonstration I attended was to show us how it could be done if there were no factory made pads available. We all agreed that it is very time consuming, about ten to fifteen minutes per pad - once you get the hang of it when, as Gordon states, a machine can spit out dozens in the same time.
I'm quite happy and, since that demonstration I witnessed, still appreciative that good quality machine made pads are available at very reasonable prices.
- r![[cool]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/cool.gif) n b -
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Author: cujo
Date: 2003-10-11 17:02
Anyone heard of Norbeck pads? If you wanna spend extra for pads maybe look at Norbeck? Anyone have comments on these pads. I have never seen or used any. Im not sure how much better they are than normal pads.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-10-11 18:39
This thread picqued [sp?] my interest, so I made a quickie search via USPTO and found a number of "pad" [a too-broad,generic term], "sealing" etc patents, Norbeck US 4,114,500 among them, seemingly [on brief scanning] more related to sax pads [a larger market ? {small joke}]. A number of well-known names may be used with cl.sax,woodwind terms to view this "prior art". Still room for innovation, IMHO. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-10-11 21:55
....and why climb a mountain when you can fly over it....
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Author: contragirl
Date: 2003-10-11 22:46
Well, I remember these pads weren't regular bladder pads. I almost want to say they were Gortex or something along those lines. I may just go out and get manufactured Gortex pads anyway.
--Contragirl
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Author: cujo
Date: 2003-10-12 01:22
I have only seen Norbeck pads on a clarinet. dont even think they were selling any for sax. But this guy had a clarinet underwater and says the pads will still work fine. I just hope it was a plastic clarinet.
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2003-10-12 02:10
Pads can be purchased from the usual pad suppliers in just about any material: single, double, or even triple "fishskin"; leather in your choice of colors; GoreTex; and a few other synthetics, some of which claim not to be damaged by water.
The only reason I can imagine for buying hand-made pads is if your Clarinet has a smaller cut-out area around the tone hole, such that an ordinary sized pad won't fit. This is seen in the repadding of some older Clarinets, Some pad suppliers will produce special order pads to fit such instruments with little or no premium charged.
Regards,
John
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Author: ron b
Date: 2003-10-12 02:58
It seems to me that pad makers have already long ago anticipated our every need. I believe Allied, most likely other suppliers as well, sells straight sided pads for oboes and for those small clearance clarinet tone holes you might encounter. Pads are also manufactured in different thicknesses (thin, regular and thick)...
"...there lies a steel drivin' man, lawd, lawd; there lies a steel drivin' man".
- ron b -
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Author: LeWhite
Date: 2003-10-12 08:03
I was just thinking about getting all my little upper joint trill keys done in cork - I have both Eb's and G# in cork. I used to have all cork in my upper joint on my Buffet, and leather bottom joint.
The first two fingers on the left hand (both ring keys) are uneven. I think I need the second one lowered by a millimeter, at the linking joint, because it's making throat E, F, & F# a little sharp.
Is this normal, or is my instrument out of tune? I tried pushing the next ring down at the desired length and it works in correcting the tuning a lot.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2003-10-12 10:23
cujo asked about Norbek pads
There is a thread on them:
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=123479&t=123433#reply_123479
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-10-12 10:32
I have made my own pads at different times over the years but only saxophone. The last set are still on my alto and I am about to change them. They are made via a set of dies through which you punch the correct sized backing and chosen depth felt wrapped in the leather which is glued back up. You also have to ix the rivet/ reflector of your choice. Most repairers I know have now largely abandoned the practise although pads can be made for specific jobs. Again it is mostly a sax repair practise. It is most useful on restoration of vontage horns where pad cups have deformed or been damaged and the standard and half sizes don't always suit. The quality of pad making now by companies such as Chanu, Lucien, Prestini etc. give a pethora of choice in depths, diameters and materials making custom pad making more of a luxury than a necessity.
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