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Re: Repadding your clarinet isn't that easy

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2010-10-08 16:30

Yeah, going in to it whole hog from the start is really not the suggested method.

I began with oiling keys monthly. By that I mean taking all the keys off to do a real deep clean and oil. This will expose you to the KEY ORDER real fast. At this point it is also a good idea to put rods, pivots and keys in a specific (this is the order they cam off) physical order on a paper towel or some such surface that WILL NOT BE DISTURBED until everything is back together again.

As for the pads themselves, I started with one emergency replacement at a time. This IMMEDIATELY exposes you to the idea of FLOATING in a pad so that they sit flush with the tone hole.

The glue thing has never appealed to me. Stick shellac is best, for me because 1) the pads will swell out of the cup upon exposure to heat. 2) you can just put the new pad in to a cup with the old shellac, then re-heat and allow the pad to float in under spring pressure for a good seal OR very light manual pressure for a few seconds until it cools down to a stable position.

THEN, many repair folks use "seating springs" (I think that's the name) to apply pressure to the NON spring pads over night so that the pads will take on that slight crease of the tone hole. ALL of these; floating, seating and ....... well, seating; are critical to getting the the pads to SEAL.

To test, perform a suction test and a positive pressure test. I prefer my horns to seal "like a coke bottle" for maximum sound and 'sure-footedness' from note to note.

..............Paul Aviles

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