 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Todd H.
Date: 2000-11-06 22:50
Last spring there was a brief thread about pad options, and these pads were mentioned.
I just thought that it would be of interest to report that my son and I set up his Vito for the marching band season with these pads, and a thorough adjustment and cleaning as well. No problems have developed with the pads, although the clarinet got soaked several times in practice sessions and had to have the keys oiled afterwards. The Vito speaks easily and sounds plenty loud too, just the ticket for the field.
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Author: mark weinstein
Date: 2000-11-06 23:02
IMMSMR, the Norbeck pads are featured in a "ad" within Ferree's catalogue showing a clarinet padded with Norbecks (sunken) in a (glass or seethru) container of water. (the ad should say "don't try this at home!") : - ) mw
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2000-11-07 13:30
They don't ever 'seat'. I.e. no indentation where they seal. Therefore there can be big unreliability problems if the tone holes are not level (I've met this in Vitos), there is wood grain across the tone hole edges, chips in the tone hole edges, insecure pivoting of keys, or pad installation (which is very fussy because of the lack of seating). Like other silicone products they tend to stick slightly to the tone holes so they have a different 'feel' for those keys where the pads are normally closed. Otherwise great!
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Author: Dave Spiegelthal
Date: 2000-11-08 14:40
I'll repeat what I had said about Norbeck pads in the aforementioned earlier thread: I don't like them at all. Being made of a silicone, they attract every kind of dirt and grime. They do have a tendency to stick to the tone holes. They are more difficult to seat well. And they have a very bad habit of sliding sideways off their cork backing, especially on keys which put a side load on the pad (such as the four right-hand trill keys). I used quite a few of the Norbeck pads on some restoration clarinets, and ended up removing most of them and replacing them with more traditional types. My personal favorites are still the leather (kid) pads as used on the larger clarinets and all saxophones.
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Author: Willie
Date: 2000-11-09 00:31
Do you prefer the leather over cork in the upper section?
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Author: Dave Spiegelthal
Date: 2000-11-09 14:06
I do prefer leather pads everywhere on a bass clarinet. On a soprano clarinet, I personally like leather (kid) pads on the four large bottom keys, at a miminum; and I often use them everywhere else. I've gone back and forth with cork pads on some or all of the upper joint keys, but the problem I have with cork is that it doesn't absorb moisture at all, so that if you get saliva in the tonehole (as many folks do, especially with the left-hand pinky C#-G# and the first right-hand side trill key), a cork pad will allow the note to gurgle instantly. With a leather pad in those locations (and to a lesser extent with the standard bladder (fishskin) pad), you at least get a small amount of moisture absorption which seems to mitigate or at least delay the gurgling problem a bit, at least in my experience. Also, as long as they're relatively new and still soft, leather pads are quiet and seal very well over little nicks and non-level portions of the tonehole (up to a point, of course).
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Author: Dave Spiegelthal
Date: 2000-11-10 14:07
Mark,
I've gotten leather pads from Ferree's Tools and from Prestini (in Nogales, AZ) and I've been happy with both sources.
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