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Single Versus Double Bladder

Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-04-09 15:09

As a repairer I import my pads from Music Supplies in Italy, "the worlds largest pad maker". One of their lines is "Mypads", which I think US imports. In fact many of the pads in UJS probably come from this supplier. Their range offers single thick bladder along with the more common double bladder.

Many years ago I did some measuring and found the single bladder to be about 1.5 times thicker than the membrane doubled on the double bladder pads. I wondered which was preferable.

Let's assume that the pads are not going to be wrecked by zealous wiping of them or abrasion at the edges. Through normal use the first sign of of pad 'death' is a cut or small hole along the 'seal circle'. When this first starts on a clarinet the pad still seals on the tone hole because a significant area is in contact with the timber. The first problem that is likely to emerge is that the pad absorbs water through the cut or hole, swells, and stops sealing on account of this swelling. However this water absorbtion is the first problem with a dying pad only for SINGLE bladder pads....

When the first layer of a DOUBLE membrane pad cuts through the loose membrane tends to wave about in the vibrating air, vibrating against the tone hole as the key is opened, and maybe still vibrating against the second layer when the key is open. This can happen even though the second membrane is making a good seal when the pad is closed. My point here is that there is effectively only one thin layer to damage before the pad needs replacing.

So the original question becomes: Which is preferable:

a). A double bladder pad that effectively is dead when the first THIN skin cuts through.
b) . A single THICK bladder pad that dies when the THICK skin is first punctured and absorbs water.

Because the thick bladder presumably takes considerably longer to puncture than a thin bladder, the single bladder pad could be expected to last longer than the double bladder pad.

I therefore made my decision to use single thick bladders and have not regretted it. The pads I use last for many years.

I would be interested if there is something I have missed in naking this decision. There must surely be some valid reason why double bladder pads have caught on as the standard. Or is it just that the name makes them SOUND as if they would be better.

I might add that it seems even some top makers are lowering themselves to sometimes using very thin, brittle, single bladder pads which die in a year or two.

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