Saxophones How will I feel about my sax after 1st general set up in over 15 years I wonder?

[Stephen Howard]

To press a key down lightly helps me to make sure that the pad is even/sealing all around the tone hole. If not the key (cup) can be bent or tone-hole uneven. File or level tone holes, bend keys or install a thicker or thinner pad? After that the pad is burning in under pressure.

We don't have techs like Stephen Howard here around. I wish we had! As a saxophone owner I like to know what the tech is doing and why.

The gold standard is a flat pad in a flat key cup on a flat tonehole. This gives you the best chance of achieving an even pressure across the face of the pad and better serves to accommodate any changes as the pad ages or the action wears.
If all three are out then most important to sort out is the tonehole, followed by the key cup and then the pad - because it really pays to have at least one point of reference that you can rely on.

Now, you can certainly make a wonky pad in a bent key cup seat on a warped tonehole - but it takes a lot longer to get it just right...and then it's a gamble as to how long the seat will last.
However, this completely depends on having sufficient shellac/hot melt glue behind the pad in order to support and retain the inevitable adjustments that'll be necessary.

 

[Saxlicker]

Well,
Here's a couple of examples.
if I found a small cork laying in the case for example I'd track down where it came from and just pop it back on with what ever glue I had. Inevitably, it could come off again and I'd lose I'd lose it maybe. Now there's a bt of guess work as to how thick it was to get the key height restored to what it was.

Or if it was something that could mean I'd have to be careful to avoid double action of keys by my inexperienced fiddling I'd live with the aged, compressed look of what remained and live with the slight double action that was just starting to creep in anyway. In other words I'd often avoid the possibility of me making it worse. Thats not to say I don't think I'm capable which comes back to time, patience and courage not colliding enough.