The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Paul
Date: 2001-02-23 19:40
I have a very old wood clarinet that needs complete re-padding. I don't want to spend 200 bucks to have it fixed (ain't worth it!). I want to try it myself. Where can I get pads?
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Author: Corey
Date: 2001-02-23 20:23
you can buy pads and other excessories at a musical instrument shop.I would suggest going to the woodwind and brasswind web site to check out pads there !!
www.wwandbw.com
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Author: Dee
Date: 2001-02-24 00:30
What brand and model is it? How do you know that it is not worth having it done by a professional repair technician?
Anyway check the retail section and contact Ferree's for their catalog. You can get just about anything you need. Take some time to figure it out though as there is so much available that it can be confusing.
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Author: Pat Parkin
Date: 2001-02-24 03:27
I recommend the book "Instrument Repair For the Music Teacher" by Burton Stanely. It has good explanations on replacing pads, corks and springs. The only somewhat unusual tool you need is an alcohol lamp, and you can make your own using a small jar and lamp parts. Some music shops, especially those with in-house repair service, will not sell repair supplies. I second Dee's recommendation of Ferree's Tools, Inc.
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2001-02-25 06:41
There is a little more to be done than just changing pads! Bumper corks, tenon corks a and good oiling of the bore. No to mention oiling the keywork adjusting the springs and balancing. If you want to learn how to overhaul a clarinet start on something cheap and plastic then move on to another cheap plastic etc.. until you have done a few and then start experimenting on a better quality instrument. It is not as easy as it looks. Most of us who do that sort of thing and charge $200 have years of experience and/or formal training.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-02-25 12:30
I agree with Mark.
On an overhaul there are normally dozens of other matters just as important as pads that need to be attended to. Each one of these can be, and often is, quite a complicated process of fault identification and choice of appropriate remedy, both of these needing a great deal of experience to carry out effectively, let alone considerable specialized and expensive equipment. To illustrate this, if my single person repair depot (for woodwind and saxes only) burnt down I would need almost US$30000 to replace equipment, and this does not include stocks of pads and parts, perhaps another $12000. That is what I have found I need to do overhauls well.
As an example of attending to an apparently simple matter of a 'weak spring' , do an "all words" search on the words "bandaid only" to home in on my previous post of January 31.
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Author: Ginny
Date: 2001-02-25 19:26
When I asked a similar question months back, my mechanical ability came into question. I was informed that this was not due to my gender, and that I had over reacted. I note that the current poster is a man, and only his lack of experience and equipment are noted. However, his mechanical abilities are not questioned. This seems to contradict the protestations made when I posted before.
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Author: Rene
Date: 2001-02-25 20:00
Ginny, I do not know about the previous post that made you worry, but I would classify the answer of the two repairmen as a friendly way of saying that the original poster is not qualified to try an overhaul. So unless the answer you got was way more harsh, there is no need to overreact.
Changing a pad is not really difficult, so Paul go ahead and do it, if you are sure that the clarinet is not worth the 200$ for a complete overhaul. But if the repairmen say there is usually much more to do, who am I to question this? You will see.
Rene
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-02-26 00:59
Ginny your fixation on gender absolutely bewilders me. Once again I DID NOT EVEN LOOK at the name, hence gender of the PERSON I responded to in my posting. I responded to a posting - not the gender of a person, nor even a person. (Sorry to have been so imprersonal. Paul!)
I am astonished that Ginny has brought this matter up again. For those who want the background for my annoyance at Ginny pursueing this matter do an "all words" search on "repair parts ginny" to locate the thread involved.
Thank you Rene. My post was written entirely in the spirit that you describe. Communication was accurate. It was intended as an attempt to highlight how complex an overhaul normally is. It was not intended in any way to be CRITICAL of anybody's ability or lack of it. (By the way I do not know what gender you are!)
Ginny you seem to have created a gender issue based on the difference in meaning of the terms "mechanical ability" and "experience" (with respect to mechanical ability required in clarinet overhaul). I put it to you that in the non-critical context of my posts above and in the previous thread these terms are synonymous.
It may be relevant that before I read you post above I received an email from Paul indicating agreement with what Mark and I had written and my response to him was, "Go for it! I am totally self-taught in this job [of instrument servicing] and if I had not tackled my run-over Haynes flute the job would never have begun."
repai parts ginny
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