Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-05-31 12:39
I use the cream-coloured (only because it matches the bladder pads) shellac. I put the required quantity of SOLID 'drips' into the key cup, heat the key cup until the shellac foams a little and rises, float the pad (chosen for its appropriate thickness and prtrusion from the key cup) on this puddle, wipe the back of the key cup on a wet rag (wetted knee area of my smock in fact) to cool (hiss!) to around 100 degrees C (this makes the 'foaminess' subside' and increases the glue's viscosity so that it does not ooze out), press the pad in even and level, reinstal the key, level the key cup over the tone hole, checking around the hole with a 0.02 mm thick shim, then give it a good press closed and check again. Done. I reheat glue while the key is on the instrument only on grossly designed instruments with apalling key cup alignment, and B&H Regents whose keys break easily and cannot be repaired. Maybe a little unorthodox, but it sure works and is very quick.
I find that if I repad a key for the second time around the alignment routine is often not needed, suggesting that most key cups are out of alignment at manufacture!
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The Clarinet BBoard
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