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Re: Which Pad Material Seals Best in Cold Weather

Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2019-01-15 22:42

Seabreeze,

I'm not sure whether this will help you much...as I'm not sure how cold "cold" is. However, I play outside every Christmas Eve (usually somewhere between 6pm and midnight). Temperature can be anywhere from -20 F to +20 F. Usually, my clarinet has a combination of leather pads and skin pads (plus one cork pad on the upper joint g#/c# key).

I have no scientific measure, but here are my observations:
Skin pads have a tendency to freeze to the toneholes and tear.
Cork pads have a tendency to freeze to the toneholes and stick (sometimes pretty solidly)
Leather pads seem to hold up well.
The above observations could very well be a result of where which materials are being used on the instrument.

As for which material seals best...I really couldn't say. In those conditions, my fingers usually play a larger role in leaks than my pads do. Also - the keys/oil on rod screws can begin to get somewhat sluggish, and the spring tension is not quite right as a result...so I suspect some leaking is caused by this too.

As for pad longevity - I've found the cork and leather pads recover pretty much back to normal, whereas I usually have to replace a skin pad or two due to tearing. I haven't used synthetics, so I can't address those.

Fuzzy

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