Here they all are. Only one pad is torn.
😀 I thought I was missing a resonator, but they all seem to be here. I watched the music medic video on installing Buescher pads and it seemed quite complicated with the leveling of cups, shellac, hole punching, etc... They recommended this
product if I ended up needing to replace them all. I'm not opposed to buying a set of pads, but I don't have any of the corresponding gear (shellac gun, bench block). Hopefully I can get away with not having to replace them all.
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Thanks for this thread link!
Any special tricks to cleaning the inside of the saxophone? It's a myriad of colors. Green, brown and black. Looks like a creature died in there. 😅
First of all, congrats on getting everything apart without breaking anything!
Second, the installation procedure explained by MM is, er, the complicated way of doing a simple task. My analogy would be you buy a set of screws and the vendor gives you a hammer and a grinding wheel and a file to remove the thread of the screws so you can hammer them in. Seriously! I've emailed them and shown them how there is an easy way by just pulling the snaps, using the original metal discs as springload for the replacement pads, stick them in and level them with a few flicks of a finger against the cup.
But, to their excuse or justification, many of the older horns have undergone bad repairs and need extra love and care to even get close to the "original installation" and that's where their method is valid. How do I know? I've done several old Bueschers with snap resos and zero glue and they are the best horns I have, simple as that.
The MM sets are ok but if you just order one, you will very likely end up with maybe 5, maybe 8 (last set I ordered) pads that were off by as much as 2 mm diameter.
Right now what I see are 5 pads that need to be replaced, the low C (torn with the paper backing still in the cup) the 3 palm keys and the side E (the latter 4 may still "work" but they are the trouble spots on every horn and very easy to install.
Make sure you clean the cups and, since it looks like there was a repad already with non-original pads that were glued in, get rid of the gunk with Naphta or WD40. and then just stick in the new pads, With the small ones - easy peasy, the low C, you may have to cut a plastic disc or catfood can lid but you'll see once you dry-fit a new pad, whether it is too low or too high or tilted to one side or the other.
For adjusting and leveling the cups, really the best tool I have found is some old credit cards cut into strips and maybe folded over, you insert them at the high (tight) spot and gently press down on the cup until it is level about 1mm above the tone hole chimney. There are fancy tools and they are not one iota better, probably even worse but as of now, the only pad you may need anything like that for is the big torn one. ]
FWIW, here is the tally of my Buescher c-mel pads in mm but it is a 1922 so you may have slightly different numbers when you measure them. But most likely it'll be 1x 17mm and 3x 19mm that you need and one 45mm (42??)
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