This is for the makers/repairers etc…can I pick your brains?..I have an 8-key M&E that I want to repad; have to do at least two, and I might as well do the whole thing. I have reasonable technical skills so I think I can manage to get through it. The question is what pads to use; I have been reading and am still confused.
I contacted Mr. Cronnolly and he confirmed that they are clarinet pads on the flute, but he gets the keys with the pads already on them, and sent me to Ferree’s Tools (http://www.ferreestools.com/Catolog_Homepage_1.htm) , which is also suggested in Hammy Hamiltons book. They have a number of clarinet and flute pads that look like they would do, but with a number of choices (single skin, double skin, silicone), I’d like to get the ‘best’ I can, and I’m quite sure some of you have more experience with the different pads than I do. I had sent a couple of emails to Ferree’s but haven’t had an answer, one has bounced back, and I don’t know if they have as much expereince with wooden flutes as some of you guys do.
The existing pads are 13.5 mm in diameter; the pad material is folded over a small cardboard disk on to the back. The thickness is approx. 2.5 mm if I squash the pad with the calipers, approx. 4mm if I don’t squash it at all.
I’m going to keep trying to educate myself on this, but in the meantime thanks for any advice.
I use Premium Deluxe Leather Clarinet pads from Windcraft in GB - the pads are actually made in Italy. These are the tan-brown ones you most commonly see. I believe Ferree’s will stock the same or similar. I have seen similar white leather ones from another US supplier some time in the past. The 3mm thickness of these is fine in most modern flutes’ key-cups and indeed in many antiques, though it can be a bit thick for some. Anyway, it is leather clarinet pads you want, not any of the other options.
I buy them at Ferrees, they come in .5 increments. The problem with them, sometimes they are a little thick for the keys, being 3mm thick. What I do when they are too thick, carefully take take the pad apart and remove the card, or sometimes cut down the felt, then glue them together again. I like the white ones better.
Just to get this clear in my head, from Ferree’s I am looking for what they have listed as ‘alto, bass clarinet, and basson pads’, B32 in tan kid or B33 in white kid, on page 115? Or is it one of the ones on page 114 like the B17’s…when they say ‘skin’, do they mean they are made from leather?
I’d expect skin to be the thin translucent stuff you see on modern metal flutes and clarinets, variously called goldbeater’s skin, bladder skin, fish skin etc. I use the B32 or B40 leather, depending on the thickness I need (circa 3mm or 3.6mm respectively).