 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: stebinus
Date: 2008-12-08 19:50
Why can't I get those nice deep seats I see on old pads? I've used woven and pressed felt, needle the shoulder, wet them with hot water, clamp them down overnight and still just the barest hint of a seat. What am I doing wrong?
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2008-12-08 19:54
Nothing.
They shouldn't assume a deep permanent seat as long as possible, because this means that the felt has lost its resilience.
One does not normally clamp clarinet pads.
--
Ben
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2008-12-08 20:28
The surface of the pad should make contact around the entire crown when tested with a feeler gauge, but it doesn't need a deep impression provided it seals all the way around.
Skin pads that stay completely flat (where the surface remains taut) are far better than pads that are too soft, take a deep impression, wrinkle and sag in the middle.
So seat the pad so you can feel it's making contact all around when pressed using light finger pressure, or under spring tension only.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2008-12-08 21:06
What you are doing wrong is trying to create a deep seat 
Clamping the pads doesn't really help, and clamping them BEFORE they seal can only create problems later (if you even get them to seal this way). I'm also not sure why you wet them with hot water. I have heard of wetting the pads but I don't do it and there is no problem.
You should get the pads to seal - test all around with a feeler (I use a rolling paper) and only then create the sit, AFTER the glue and pad cup cool, and the pad will not move. Then I press the pad cup for a few seconds to create a light seat.
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Author: stebinus
Date: 2008-12-09 09:45
OK thanks people. Some of the books say warm water and clamping is the thing to do but maybe you're right. Don't worry. I do seat the pads with a feeler before the H2O clamping thing.
Cheerio.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2008-12-09 10:32
I agree with others here.
The important thing is the SEAL. After that, seat (i.e. impression) is irrelevant. Note that cork pads, which are generally well regarded, do not have any significant seat.
The technician who uses a soft, squishy pad that is capable of and has a deep seat, is probably the technician who makes no effort to align the pad (& hence key cup) with the tone hole and attend to blemishes in the tone hole edge. The deep seat is a band-aid for such scruffy workmanship, and introduces its own problems, such as compromised venting, unreliable sealing, and more likelihood of membrane buzzing.
Test everything you read for the ring of common sense.
Get rid of the silly books that fail that test. They will also contain other misleading garbage.
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Author: stebinus
Date: 2008-12-09 11:22
Thanks Gordon as usual for your input. Here's the books I've been using: Saska, Erick Brand, Stanley and Robert Schmidt. Any general comments on them?
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2008-12-10 11:03
Saska: Respected by technicians. (I have not seen it)
Brand: Sound stuff mixed up with misleading and obsolete stuff. IMO. YOu need to be an accomplished technciian to sort it out.
Stanley & Schmidt. Don't know.
Highly respected: THE COMPLETE WOODWIND REPAIR MANUAL - by Reg Thorp, available from http://www.napbirt.org/
But books really only scratch the surface.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2008-12-10 13:41
I have the Saska book and it's pretty good but a little old so some things are possible to do in a better way than what's described. The book Gordon recommended is good and the most modern, though it also more of an overview than anything complete (as fat as it is). Books are great to realize what to do and give (usually) a brief explanation, but they don't really tell you all the details of how to do something. This you will get from experience or searching in other places like the internet for example.
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