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Soprano sax air dry C#, G#, Eb

CliveMA

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Just received my Key Leaves for Soprano Sax
20200720_131748.jpg
 
A business card works well.
I had been using business cards. The advantage of the key leaves is the bump on the leaf makes a bigger gap between the pad and the leaf, allowing better drying. The disadvantage is the high one-off cost, the equivalent of about 2000 business cards!
 
Yes, I really like the look of the product but the price is daft. Extremely daft when you have multiple horns. Shame.
 
I have a couple of these but didn't realise there is a special one for soprano. The ones I have work, but this looks more suitable for sop.

Rhys
 

I like it. OK: I'm going to drop this here. This is a "secret sauce" I discovered myself about 10 years ago. It's the best non-stick treatment I've encountered, and I've never seen anybody else be aware of it, and to my knowledge this is the 1st time anybody's ever posted about it on an internet forum, or any other venue, for saxophones. Probably, in 10 years, if I'm still posting on internet forums (this covers "...breathing") someone will take me to task for not being aware of it if I move on to something else and post about that.


WARNING: you should READ THE WARNING LABEL and research the ingredients for yourself before using it. My actual experience is that it's not a great idea to play the horn before the "McLube" is dry. There are almost certainly carcinogens in the material itself, and I feel like on those occasions when I was impatient and played while the "McLube" was still wet (and smelly) I felt some lung irritation, which seems to happen mostly when impatient, so I self-diagnose it being more related to the solvent.

US$20 is a bit high for the small can, pretty good for the big can.

What this is: a teflon lubricant that dries dry and non-tacky. It seems to have some waterproofing qualities -- it's meant for use in sail rigging, etc., so "duh" -- but I've never done any kind of test to see about that in detail. I use it primarily for nonstick pad treatment. It does leave a white film.

The vast majority of my clients have been aware of this for years, and have kept it a secret, which I really, really appreciate (for any of you seeing this now, having been so kind as to keep my secret for about the last decade).

There are a lot of little details in how to use this, and what happens to its performance under different conditions. If you do a G#, and get an effective result right away, you're probably golden for months. If you have problems fairly soon afterward, you likely have tonehole burrs or binding keytubes/pivots or need to adjust spring tensions.
 
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@saxyjt are you aware of this stuff?

Jx

I've been away from serious sailing for too long, but I recall something like it being used to lubricate the aluminium grooves in which we slided the headsails. It's here for the UK. I'll have to ask one of my old sailing mates who's a sailmaker if he uses it or any similar product. But most certainly sound like a very good idea! Being salt water resistant is a rather strong credential in my book! ;)
 
I always like to check the MDS on products I haven't used before.
 
I have a couple of these but didn't realise there is a special one for soprano. The ones I have work, but this looks more suitable for sop.

Rhys
Another benefit is that the transparent smaller leaf on the underside effectively locks the leaf in the tonehole. In other words, you can put your sop back in its case and the key leaves will stay put. You can't do that with a business card because it will fall out.
 
Another benefit is that the transparent smaller leaf on the underside effectively locks the leaf in the tonehole. In other words, you can put your sop back in its case and the key leaves will stay put. You can't do that with a business card because it will fall out.

I did notice that, and it's why I like the way that is designed. There's still a tiny possibility that pressing upward on the resonator/rivet could unintentionally "fluff" (move the seating), but much less so than most other ways you could design that product. The wider the contact point "rivet" (made up term, I just made up) is, and the more canted its plane is where it meets the rivet or resonator, the more it would sort of distribute the force of cup pressing down on it (for example with a downward-pressure sprung key).

@nigeld For when you receive your order: (1) there are two ways I apply, for the most part: paper strips, different widths, with the tips sprayed on both sides and then blotted onto both pad and tonehole sort of in the way one uses a dollar bill to "clean" a pad/tonehole and (2) cotton swabs of different types with alterations by hand (mainly, just pulling off material to reduce the thickness of the swab). You do NOT want to use the straw applicator, I think, unless you disassemble before using the aerosol. When you treat a pad that is held closed by springs, you want to hold it open until the pad surface is dry (which doesn't take long). The solvent dries quickly. Again, I have found that if I don't wait for the Sailkote to dry, my lungs can sometimes feel a bit irritated. If you allow the pad to close before it's dry, the effect will still be there but compromised. I would apply at least twice, as many as 4 times. The first pass may remove color from your pad's surface if it's tinted (many are tinted, but don't look like they are). There is more. This is enough to get started. Your first passes may also seem to be completely absorbed by the pad. I would sort of tend not to use this with kangaroo (too porous), but then because it's so porous kangaroo probably won't cause you to look toward finding a non-stick treatment.
 
@nigeld For when you receive your order: (1) there are two ways I apply, for the most part: paper strips, different widths, with the tips sprayed on both sides and then blotted onto both pad and tonehole sort of in the way one uses a dollar bill to "clean" a pad/tonehole and (2) cotton swabs of different types with alterations by hand (mainly, just pulling off material to reduce the thickness of the swab). You do NOT want to use the straw applicator, I think, unless you disassemble before using the aerosol. When you treat a pad that is held closed by springs, you want to hold it open until the pad surface is dry (which doesn't take long). The solvent dries quickly. Again, I have found that if I don't wait for the Sailkote to dry, my lungs can sometimes feel a bit irritated. If you allow the pad to close before it's dry, the effect will still be there but compromised. I would apply at least twice, as many as 4 times. The first pass may remove color from your pad's surface if it's tinted (many are tinted, but don't look like they are). There is more. This is enough to get started. Your first passes may also seem to be completely absorbed by the pad. I would sort of tend not to use this with kangaroo (too porous), but then because it's so porous kangaroo probably won't cause you to look toward finding a non-stick treatment.

Many thanks for this information. I was about to ask and you beat me to it. :yess:
 

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