Padding! A clarinet pad is made of three parts: cardboard, felt and a skin covering. The skin covering can be made of a bladder, intestine or synthetic material. A pad can be installed with shellac or hot glue. NEVER, NEVER use super glue for gluing a pad. In order to pad you heat up the pad cup. When super glue is heated it produces cyanide gas. Before padding I cleaned the pad cups using a utility rag and denatured alcohol. When the pad cup was clean I heated up my glue and put it in the pad cup. Next I heated the pad cup so that the glue was warm. I then placed the pad in the cup. All of these steps were done with the key off of the instrument. I then installed the key on the clarinet to level the pad to the tone hole. Once the pad is floating on the glue I manipulated it to seal on the tone hole. With padding there are different issues that can arise. The pad may not be level (it is warped), tone hole is not level, not enough glue or too much glue. All of these factors determine how long the padding will take. Padding is a skill that I will get better with more practice.
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| Heating the glue to put in the pad cup |
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| Heating the pad cup with glue in it so that it is ready for the pad |
Hi Danielle, I'm loving your blog.
ReplyDeleteAnswer this question, Do you prefer using shellac ou hot glue pellets???
Hi Rodolfo. I am willing to answer any questions you may have! I have used both shellac and hot glue while padding. I prefer the hot glue because as it cools you are still able to move the pad to fit the tone hole. Shellac is a bit harder to work with and doesn't level as nice as the hot glue.
ReplyDeleteThank you
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