Prepping A Pad For Installation

Pads aren't museum quality items. They have to be replaced from time to time. If you do it right, your horn will feel better, perform better, and the pads will last longer. If you omit any of these steps, you'll be condemned to reading SOTW for eternity....

First, use the best pad you can buy. There's a huge difference in quality. Shop very carefully, since the pads you select will be in your horn a long time. Kangaroo leather is the best, hands down. It's strong, quiet, and doesn't stick. Goatskin is very durable. Beware of soft felt, silicone treatments (causes sticking), and flexible cardboard backs.

Now you've got to select and size the resonator. Remember that a resonator is nothing but a mirror that reflects the sound. The bigger the mirror, the more the reflection. The closer the resonator material is to the material your horn is made from, the more accurate the reflection. You can alter, to a small degree, the sound of your horn through the choice of resonator material and the amount of leather exposed after resonator installation. Plastic resonators and exposed pad leather will take the edge off your horn and deaden the sound.

Measure the tone hole and select the largest resonator that will clear. You weren't stupid enough to buy pads with resonators already installed, were you? We usually use screws to install resonators so they can be re-used, but rivets work just fine for holding the resonator tightly in place.

Before you install the resonator, take some Mojo's Never Stick Pad Powder and spread a light coat over the leather. Apply a couple of drops of water. Then heat your pad slick or pad irons (Ferree sells great ones) with your bench burner and iron the pad, taking care to (1) not scorch the leather because the pad iron was too hot and (2) work the Mojo's into the pores of the leather. The leather should be as tight as......well, you know. It should also be perfectly smooth with no wrinkles. Brush off any excess pad powder.

Now install the resonator. It must fit tightly no matter what mechanism you use to attach it to the pad. No excuses!

Turn the pad over, and liberally apply only genuine shellac never never never hot glue. I use a shellac gun from MusicMedic. QUICKLY, while the shellac is still soft, rub the shellac on a smooth, hard surface (I have a granite block for this purpose. A bench anvil works well, as does a piece of glass) so you get an absolutely smooth even coating of shellac over the entire back of the pad, right up to the edges. THE ENTIRE BACK MUST BE COMPLETELY SEALED AND PERFECTLY FLAT. You can reheat the shellac on the back of the pad with a heat gun if you need to touch up your work. You're now ready to install the pad into the cup, a process that will be discussed in a later post.

You can get Mojo's Never Stick Pad Powder at www.nationofmusic.com.