The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: Questions about restoring a Buescher 731 True Tone Metal Clarinet

Author: Chris P
Date: 2022-04-01 03:50

Silver plated instruments will be silver plated both inside and out, so you're not likely to have any issues with red rot on them as all the exposed surfaces will have been in direct contact with the plating solution in the plating tank during the electroplating process.

Unsoldering and resoldering the thumbrest in a different location isn't going to leave as much of a scar as you think as once the residual solder has been cleaned up and the underlying surface polished, it can always be spot plated to cover the bare metal to make it look uniform, or covered over with lacquer to prevent it tarnishing. Or you can always leave it bare brass or nickel silver.

If you're going to use leather pads which are definitely far better than skin pads, you'll have to measure the inside diameters of the pad cups once the existing pads have all been removed and the remaining glue in the pad cups has been removed. Use shellac to install them as that provides a nice solid foundation for the pads and they can always be adjusted further down the line.

Use a cork pad in the speaker key and that has to be made from high quality cork with no pores on the surface which can cause leaks. You will have to prep cork pads by grinding the face to be sure it's perfectly flat and free from any defects. Use several grades of abrasive from coarse to smooth laid on glass or any other perfectly flat and firm surface to grind the cork pads on.

It will also help massively if you level all the toneholes - you can make tonehole facing tools from metal (brass or nickel silver), wood, plastic or ebonite provided the face has been machined completely flat, then glue abrasive to it and use that to level the toneholes. It will also help to centre drill the tonehole toppers and make a set of pilots to fit the various diameter toneholes to be sure the tonehole topper stays in place whilst grinding the toneholes level. Use a back and forth rotary motion to level them and you can use different grades of abrasive, starting with a coarse one and finishing with fine abrasive for a good finish.

Another option are synthetic pads and they're often best installed with hot glue which has a much lower melting point compared to shellac so it won't distort or melt the synthetic material.

As for silencing materials, use felt or other similarly soft material to cushion open standing keys to minimise key noise when you release those keys. You can still use cork stoppers on some closed standing keys should you want to, although there are far better alternatives and I prefer to use tech cork for that as it doesn't compress like natural cork can if the stoppers are fairly thick (over 2mm). Also use thin tech cork under adjusting screws or other linkages - you can always stick thin teflon to it for the LH thumb linkage on the LH1 ring key and on the LH F/C key linkage tab on the RH F/C key as that will make it more slippery. Natural cork is still the best material for tenon corks (and cork pads).

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics