Ain't She Purdy

[jbtsax]

I’ve never done snaps. I have a straight C SOP. It has the original snaps. Although a few missing. How did you size the pads to fit? Tight to the cup or a tad loose?

I use the method my mentor taught me---snug enough to stay in the cup when turned upside down, and loose enough to fall out if the key cup is tapped. I know some techs like to "stuff" the pads in till they wrinkle or bulge. I'm not one of them.

For the missing snaps how do I choose a size. For that matter when they’re all out how do you know what goes to what size cup/pad.

In my experience they are always smaller than what you'd expect a modern resonator to be. When I remove the old pads, the reso is snapped back into the keycup so they go together till the new pad is installed. FWIW snap on resos in a soprano are a PITA because they are so small (even in the palm keys ). The last Buescher soprano I worked on had some of the resos and spuds missing. My stock of snap ons didn't include the teeny-tiny ones needed so I ground out the remaining studs and used traditional resos. I'm glad I did. Sopranos are hard enough without the added aggravation.

 

[PigSquealer]

How the heck do you compensate for any thickness variance? I’m assuming the original pads were very soft. Maybe no cardboard back? Other than the current straight SOP I have on hand. I haven’t had any exposure to Buescher snaps.

 

[jbtsax]

How the heck do you compensate for any thickness variance? I’m assuming the original pads were very soft. Maybe no cardboard back? Other than the current straight SOP I have on hand. I haven’t had any exposure to Buescher snaps.

A couple of thoughts: I get good results with .160" thick pads. A technique I find useful to tell how much shellac to use is what Curt Altara calls "dry fitting". You put the pad in the cup with no adhesive and close the key. If it touches in the front and not the back it, requires more shellac. If it touches in the back first it is too thick. In that case bending the key cup is often the best solution.