I'm so happy I could.......

[kevgermany]

Dance.

Tried the tenor for the first time after repadding it. Played clean from top F down to bottom Bb. And it's hard to believe how much better it plays than it did before.



Couple of minor things left to do, but I'm a very very happy camper. I spent a lot of time getting the regulation right, and it's paid dividends. So nice for me to press the D/E/F keys and get single movement, not a bit of a pause half way down. And it's so much easier to play, no more squeezing the living daylights out of the keys to make them seal. In fact it's fingertip control over the key openings...

I'm sure that Griff and Stephen would do a much better job in a quarter of the time, but for me it was time well spent and it'll stand me in good stead in the future. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Really helps develop your patience as well. I can now see where the cost of a professional repad goes now, there's a huge amount of fine precision work to set it up just right, on top of just getting the pads to seal.

Steve's Haynes manual helped a lot, and also the instructions scattered around cybersax.com.

Pads are black Prestini kangaroo skin, with resonators. As Griff said they're nice and firm. Gives a nice clean action as you're playing...

So a big thanks to all who offered advice. I've got 3 more (and a flute) to do now.... But slowly slowly....

 

[Pyrografix]

:welldone:welldone:welldone

Well done - you're braver than most of us for tackling the job in the first place!

 

[Sunray]

Good Job mate ... Congrats ... :welldone

 

[jonf]

Great stuff, Kev, really please to hear it went so well. And quickly, too. It was only just over three weeks ago that your pads arrived, and given that you have a job, family and a life, I reckon that was extremely quick.

I reckon you've earned some glasses of lovely German beer.

:welldone:welldone:welldone:welldone::welldone

 

[Young Col]

Well done Kev. That's a big undertaking but very satisfying.
Just as well you're still working fulltime. You'd never have had the time if you were retired.:shocked::welldone
Y

 

[les3716]

It must have felt good! Well done.

 

[kevgermany]

Just as well you're still working fulltime. You'd never have had the time if you were retired.:shocked::welldone
Y

)) )) Just what my Dad says, he's been retired for nearly 20 years, and doesn't know how he ever managed to get anything done while he was working. Antoher 12 years until I become too busy....

 

[Sweet Dreamer]

Kev is in heaven with his new saxy pads
his D, E, and F keys snap with pizzazz
now he'll be playing slick razzmatazz
whenever he improvs the blues or the jazz

Off kangaroo skins with wallaby blues
from the bell of his horn the music will ooze
filling the pub as the sound waves diffuse
enchanting the patrons as they sip on their booze


​

 

[Taz]

Kev is in heaven with his new saxy pads
his D, E, and F keys snap with pizzazz
now he'll be playing slick razzmatazz
whenever he improvs the blues or the jazz

Off kangaroo skins with wallaby blues
from the bell of his horn the music will ooze
filling the pub as the sound waves diffuse
enchanting the patrons as they sip on their booze


​

Yeah, what he said! (How am I supposed to follow that then????)

Well done Kev, that really is something to be proud of!

 

[BigMartin]

Excellent. I thought I was quite brave just replacing the odd piece of cork.

 

[Andante cantabile]

A great success! Not something I would ever do, but it shows how results can change when the instrument is set up properly.

 

[Gandalfe]

So any take away lessons. Things will you do differently when you try it a second time? What was your biggest surprise, if anything? I suspect if I had tried that, the instrument would have turned into a lamp. No, really...

 

[Sweet Dreamer]

I was actually thinking about putting new pads on my alto sax. It's actually a brand new horn. But it sat in the case for the better part of a year and the pad were all stuck close. Trying to get them open they actually pulled away like rubber type material. I was afraid they were going to rip. They did manage to finally let go of the sax. And then they looked 'saggy', is the only way I know how to describe it. Kind of like a balloon that had been blown up and the deflated. Strangely enough they seems to smooth back out tight again over time. They must be made out of some really weird strange material. Whatever it is, it does seem to be quite resilient as they all seemed to return to their normal shape after this traumatic experience.

I was also thinking that much of my difficulty in getting good solid notes might have been due to these pads. But it seems to be playing ok now. The pads I was looking at were supposed to be pretty high-quality leather of some kind. I was also reading up on how to replace the pads. I wouldn't hesitate to take on the job. I wouldn't be afraid to completely disassemble my sax and reassemble it. I've done similar work on clarinets and flutes in the past. But I've never actually changed a pad.

My major concern would be in getting the old pads out cleanly. I think I read that you need to heat the cups and that will soften the glue? Is that right? Then setting the new pads in place needs to be done cleanly and evenly. I think I can do that, but not having tried it I'm not sure what it would be like.

As far as actually taking the valves off the horn and resembling that part of it, I think I could handle that part without much difficulty.

In any case, my horn seems to be playing just fine now (for a cheap horn). So I'm going to hold off installing new pads until it becomes a necessary issue. The pads that are on it are weird, but they do seem to be self-healing, if there is such a thing.

Maybe this horn is alive!

 

[kevgermany]

So any take away lessons. Things will you do differently when you try it a second time? What was your biggest surprise, if anything?

Management talk/questions..... lol

Lessons: Patience..
If thinkgs aren't right, and you can't find the problem, do something else and look at it again the next day.
I also found that contact adhesive isn't as good as shellac for corks. It takes ages to dry and then only sticks weakly.
It's also important that you understand the inter-relationships of the keys, especially on the bottom stack. If this doesn't make sense, you'll never get the pads closing/opening together.
And which cork to adjust when.
Same goes for the octave mechanism. It's not immediately clear how it works, and if you don't understand it, a problem here is insoluble. I left the body pad too far out of the cup, so the mechanism was locked solid. Looked as if I needed to thin a cork down, but reality was it was the pad. Same for F#. And often, if you need to adjust the pad, the corks aren't right any more, unless you're really careful with the adjustments.



Differently?
I didn't put enough Shellac in some of the cups and some I put too much in. But that's learnt now.
I'll spend even more time making sure the pads are exactly right before any corks go on. You read that they must seal with a very light finger touch - I didn't realise how light that was. They must hit exactly all the way around at the same time, no spring or finger pressure. i.e. no leak light visible when the pads are closed under their own weight. This took a lot of time.
And a couple of times I adjusted the wrong cork - and had to replace it. That's really frustrating, as is overadjusting a cork...
Initially I was a bit heavy handed with the heat, it's tricky to judge, and if the shellac starts boiling when you're warming it up to adjust a pad, the whole thing climbs out of the cup...

 

[kevgermany]

Thanks for all the other kind comments.

I'd sum up by saying that if you're reasonably good at fine work, and have the patience, then the job isn't beyond you. There's plenty of infomation out there. Stephen's sax manual is a great starting point, and there's a lot of good stuff scattered through cybersax.com and also on musicmedic.com.

But if you're unsure about being abale to re-assemble, or which cork to adjust, take it to a pro.

But it's not a fast job, especially for the novice. Time and a good work light are essential.

SD - pads are covered in soft leather. it's quite stretchy on cheap pads. can be ironed flat. A set of good pads is expensive. Not sure about cleaning out heat glue, mine was done with shellac, this scrapes out. The couple of pads I've replaced on a heat glue sax I did by adding extra glue and reseating the pad. It's messy... Horrible stuff.

 

[johnboy]

Well done Kev!!!! (patience is always the key).

John.

 

[old git]

Well done Kev!!!! (patience is always the key).

John.

I play Patience on my computer (Klondike).

Does that mean I should become a repad tech?

 

[gladsaxisme]

Hi kev

Well done, hadn't read this when I pm'd,hope your playing goes on to bigger and better things now that the sax is spot on ...john

 

[johnboy]

Does that mean I should become a repad tech?

OG, I had considered becoming one myself, but bearing in mind our advanced ages, I don't think it would be a good idea (hot shellac pots to knock over, loosing bits, etc.).

I also played Patience on my computer, but have recently graduated to "Pacman", what a challenge that is!!!!

John.

 

[kevgermany]

I play Patience on my computer (Klondike).

Does that mean I should become a repad tech?

You sound eminently qualified....

















To go on the repad technicians course...

I hear that following on from the sucess of his Haynes manual, Mr Howard is now offering 1:1 personal tuition at the discount rate of $500 per hour to book owners, and $700 pe hour for non purchasers. Sounds like a steal to me, and I've enrolled you for the next free slot. He's just waiting for your deposit ($300 cash in advance, Euros also accepted.) )) ))