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Re: Cork vs. Bladder pads

Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-08-27 05:55

"There is no specific case here. That was YOUR choice and how you decided to deal with this 'out of center key'. What you did is nothing but work around the problem instead of fixing it."

Like I said, I would allign the key and hole in other cases of the same problem. I took into consideration even things beyond the repair itself. In my country ALL repairers will use bladder pads for soprano clarinets, unless you specifically ask for leather (though no one that I know of ever asked). This clarinet will never be used by anyone in a level where they even care or know what pads they have, and if the person with this clarinet came to a different repairer (but that won't happen) he would put a bladder pad. So in this specific case I came to the conclusion it doesn't matter at all what solution I use since the end result is the same, so chose the simpler one. If it didn't work so perfectly I would correct the allignment.

"There's no such thing as "the throat G# tone hole is well ventilated on this clarinet" It's entirely up to technician or manufacturer how this key is set-up...... etc."

Ok let me rephrase. I meant that on this clarinet for the throat G# to be in tune and sound good, I chose the correct amount of ventilation, which is a lot, so the type of pad doesn't affect it. I did try a leather pad before (which didn't seal as I said) but the sound and tuning of the note with it was exactly the same as the bladder pad. My point was, that the type of pad (leather or bladder) didn't affect ventilation at all. I hope this is clearer.

Gordon, thanks very much. Like most clarinet makers, I also like bladder pads the most for how they feel and sound (I don't like too quiet or soft pads). I haven't tried cork pads yet, but if I understand correct they are mostly used for the closed pads, which almost don't affect the feel. From all the clarinetists that I like (mostly French) I think the sound the bladder pads make is almost a part of their clarinet sound culture. (Edit: by sound of the pads I mean the noise caused by the pads, not the sound of the clarinet).

What is polymer? I can't really understand from the picture what kind of material it is. Do these pads have the same feel as bladder pads (hardness), and how noisy/quiet are they?

By the way, I can't take credit for the bass clarinet changable vents idea. A hobbyst woodwind restorer from England with over 50 years experience in engineering thought of it. He is very creative and experimented with changing size and placement of register vents on his saxophones, so it was a mutual experiment.

Post Edited (2006-08-27 09:05)

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Cork vs. Bladder pads new

ChrisArcand

2006-08-25 00:47