Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2006-08-27 12:53
Clarnibass, you wrote
> 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?
Were you referring to the pads I described (in my photo) in my post of 2006-08-25? If so, then they are rather different from what tictactux describes and shows in a photo.
"Polymer", in lay terms, is a more technical term referring to what people call 'plastic" (the noun), although it can include some natural materials. For more details, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer
Quite a few polymer materials have now been tried for woodwind pads. Most have been fairly quickly rejected by technicians with a reputation for quality. The "Omni" pads from Kraus (in my photo) are the most promising I have yet seen.
The slightly narrower diameter part is a hard, solid, rigid plastic. The slightly larger diameter part, that will probably overlap the edge of the key cup, is a high-density, firm, "plastic" foam (i.e. many tiny bubbles of gas within it), possibly similar in APPEARANCE to the photo provided by tictactux. However that is probably where the similarity ends.
In the Kraus pad, this foam part has a smooth surface without cut 'bubbles'. The foam on my larger (17 mm) pad in the photo is only about 1.35 mm thick - total thickness 3.2 mm), and for the smaller (8 mm) pad, the foam seems to be only 1 mm, and total thickness 2.2 mm. I believe they are available in different thicknesses of foam.
The foam is securely bonded (at manufacture) to the hard plastic backing, possibly by superglue.
This foam DOES take a seat, which suggests it is a different material from tictactux's.
I have not used any yet, but they would seem to have properties that would make them quiet, certainly quieter than cork, yet not have a significant 'spongy' feel. They are certainly unlike any previous attempts at polymer pads that I have seen in the past.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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