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Re: Oh, the horror: Repadding your clarinet isn't that easy

Author: clarnibass
Date: 2010-10-08 17:31

In addition to the accident waiting to happen that Mark mentioned there are few more things I don't really agree with in the first two posts.

First is shims. I prefer not to use shims. Unless you are talking about the glue itself as a shim and I sometimes do that but only if really necessary. Generally I adjust the key side to side and front to back, the latter only very little necessary if using the correct thickness pad. Some keys are not really possible to adjust front to back beucase of their shape so then I might tilt the pad in the cup a bit or use more/less glue.

>> 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. <<

How is that different when using stick shellac vs. any other heat melting glue? Shellac is usually even higher temp than most heat melting glues. Or are you saying you melt the shellac without heating the key itself? That would make a very unreliable gluing to the cup, it needs to be hot for the glue to stick reliably.

>> 2) you can just put the new pad in to a cup with the old shellac, then re-heat <<

Sometimes old glue and especially old shellac is very bad for gluing again. I think it depends on the type of glue/shellac since I've seen years old shellac without any problems. But I've seen some glue or shellac on clarinets that had no hope to re-glue with.

>> 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. <<

Simply letting the spring close the pad or gently pressing the pad, while the glue is soft, will sometimes get a good seal, but many times it won't. Many times, especially for keys with a short arm, the pad would seal too strong at the back. That's because there is more pressure at the front.

>> 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. <<

After the pad is adjusted to seal optimally I just press on it with a bit more force for a few seconds to create that seat. I found that nothing more is necessary. I found clamping pads over night improves nothing if it is done right when installing. For closed keys, it happens by itself from the springs anyway so no need to clamp anything either.

>> ALL of these; floating, seating and ....... well, seating; are critical to getting the the pads to SEAL. <<

I disagree with this. It's the sealing that is critical first. The seat is only done after. At least in situations where the repair is not compromised because of budget issues, etc.

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