An Interview with Charlie A - Part 1

The beginning of this story goes back a long way. I have been a professional sax player and teacher since the early 1950’s. That was when I played my first Gig and made my first dollar with my horn playing for others to listen or dance to. I was always considered to be a decent player but never one of the stature of a Sanborn, Randolph, or Parker, and I could name many other fine players that I could never measure even close to. I was always playing in dance bands (orchestras) or combos while teaching as a band director and administrator in Mississippi and Tennessee for about 23 years. I enjoyed people enjoying my performance then and still do now except time has taken its toll. I don’t gig out much now as it takes too long to get over the late hours and cigarette smoke and cheap perfume that one encounters during a four hour performance.

I am not trying to give you a history of myself but to show that for a long period of time I have been aware of the problems that woodwind players have had, and more especially, with critical pads that tend to stick at seemingly the worst times possible---during performance, be it live or during session. It did not seem to be that much of a problem of such proportions then as it is today, at least not for me anyway.

I believe that as the ability of the player increases and as his or her technique progresses then a pad having the tendency to be what I call "retarded" upon its release becomes a major problem in good performance. By retarded I mean that if a pad is pressed down and doesn’t really stick to the point of staying stuck down when it is supposed to release but instead has a slight hesitation before it releases then it is a serious problem for the proficient player. This hesitation may be so slight as to almost be imperceptible and can cause a serious problem with fluency in the player’s execution of certain difficult passages. If you have an intermediate student playing quarter notes at a tempo of say 120 then a slight hesitation is of no real significance---but to the polished player or professional playing rapid cadenzas or passages it is of extreme importance. A lot of players just don’t even feel this hesitation and they end up with what I call "blurps" in fast passages. Anyway, back to my awareness of the problem and how that awareness led to the solution.

I have always been fortunate enough to have played with a good brand instrument, and in teaching for so many years I have had experiences with almost all makes except those of the later vintage after 1978 when I quit teaching and was just playing for a living. I have always played a Selmer alto, King super 20’s and Buffet "Super Dynaction" tenors, and a 1920 vintage King soprano. They, along with all of the other brands, Conns, Bundys, Martins or whatever back in the 50’s and 60’s all had similar problem keys that stuck. I have been talking "Sax" talk but let's not forget the clarinets, fish pad flutes and oboes, bassoons, and the like. At some point in time they all have had problem pads.

Being a band director, most of my time spent in relatively rural areas, we had to maintain our own student instruments whether they were woodwind or brass. Dented trombone slides and dented valve casings were a big problem. We had to know something about getting that instrument back in playing condition in a hurry unless of course it was in such a terrible condition that it HAD to be sent to some repairman in a city. Down time was considerable then as it is now, and replacing pads was a common experience.

Throughout the years I have tried everything imaginable to get pads to stop sticking. Most of the time it just meant replacing the pad for there was no other reliable solution. People have tried everything but nothing worked well.

But let’s talk a little bit about "sticky pads". Why does a pad stick? There is a simple answer---it sticks because ""IT IS DIRTY" and dirty means that there is a foreign substance on it that makes it adhere to the tone hole rim. There is no other reason that I know of for one to stick—if you know of another reason, enlighten me, as I would appreciate it.

When you play that instrument (woodwind—flute included) naturally saliva from your mouth goes into the instrument chamber and works its way into the tone holes, and eventually onto the pads. Think about what has been ingested into your mouth just before or DURING the playing of your instrument? As a general rule "all sorts of things", from soft drinks, alcohol, candy, assorted chips, pickles, tobacco, coffee, and if you just think about it, a Zillion other things such as gum, etc., could be added to this list. All of them are CONTAMANENTS and will leave residue inside of your mouthpiece, your instrument bore, toneholes, and on the pads.

Over the years there have been a lot of substances that different companies have come out with that were supposed to help the sticking pad situation, from saturated little papers, to different pad dopes and formulas. Most of them were substances like Neatsfoot Oil and the like, and they may have worked some when the pad was still moist but when it dried it leaves a sticky residue on the leather and tone hole rim. None of them really helped that much for they, like our medical profession of today, were treating the effect, not the cause of the problem. I have used it all—I wish that I had all of the dollar bills that I had pulled under a pad that was sticking during a performance! Nothing was satisfactory.

Then about five years ago when the instrument manufacturers, trying to be helpful I’m sure, started using the "NEW’ treated pads on their instruments, the problem just plain escalated to dynamic proportions----these new pads STICK. I have a friend, a sax instructor at a major university, that bought a new soprano that was in the $4000.00 price range. You will have to guess at which brand it was, but it was one of the old major goodies. I got a call from Will Grizzle, then of Memphis and now of Atlanta, a very fine sax technician about this particular instrument. He told me that basically ALL of the pads were sticking or ""retarding" on this brand new sax. He knew that I had been experimenting with my "Gig Dust" and he suggested that we try it on the "new innovation", "treated" pads. This was the first chance that I had to use it on the "treated" pads and actually didn’t know how it would perform. We tried it and guess what? The problem was totally solved. This was about 4 1/2 years ago and since then I have had many E-mails or calls about the same problems from all over the country from players with new instruments with sticky treated pads and how pleased they were at the results.

I have tried to interest some of the major manufacturers in dusting their new instrument pads before they send them out but at this time I have not convinced any of them of the increased benefits it would give the performance of their new instruments. One of these instrument manufacturers, a member of the old school, even stated that there was no sticky pad problem with their instruments. I don’t know how many players have bought the dust to solve the problem he won’t even acknowledge exists, but there have been quite a few that mentioned that specific brand.

I will not reveal what my product is compounded from, but someone says he has figured it out. I won’t say if he is correct or not, but he says that the stuff is "GROUND UP MARTIANS". I will have to say that he is about as close as anyone else has come to its true origins. I will say that the product is non-poisonous, non-flammable, non-absorbent, non-toxic, and will in no way harm you or the fine finish on your instrument. Martians are not known for their evil intent, except in the movies that is. Anyway it works.

I had experimented with several things and for some reason one day it just sort of all came together. I had a product that worked, and as I found out, not just worked, but worked for an extended period of time. Pad replacement was not anywhere as nearly necessary as it used to be. There are times when a pad is beyond repair, but with proper care and use of these products that time is extended, sometimes for as long as a year past what would normally be a date to get a new pad put in. A lot of shops now charge a "bench fee", a certain sum of money for just looking at your instrument, plus the cost of the pad replacement. So just a pad replacement can get expensive.

After I got the right combination of materials to work I just didn’t have any more serious "sticky pad problems". They were over. Now don’t think that I was trying to come up with a product that would stop pads from sticking so that I could market it and make millions. Marketing it had never entered my mind. I did it for selfish reasons, not intentionally so, but just to use on my instruments---not anyone else's. I used the dust for almost a year and then one day I decided to take some to my friend Will Grizzle in Memphis and let him look at it and try it in his repair shop.

I had just walked in his door when a sax player that played six nights a week on Beale Street (Paul’s note—this is Memphis’ equivalent of Bourbon St. in New Orleans) walked in. I told Will to go ahead and take care of his customer, that I didn’t really want anything much. Well the guy, I’m sorry I don’t remember his name now, had brought his sax back and told Will that his G# was still sticking and he couldn’t get it to stop. I said to myself-----hmmmmm, a chance for a perfect test. Will had done everything he could and had even replaced the guy’s pad on his last trip a few days before. I broke into the conversation at this point and asked the guy, "Do you really want that pad to stop sticking?" He said, yes, he did, as that was the reason that he brought the horn back to Will. I reached in my pocket and pulled out a small brown medicine bottle full of my "dust", handed it to Will, and told him to take one of his pipe cleaners and rub some of this powder on that pad and see if it didn’t help. Will looked at me in a peculiar sort of way, for he had never seen or heard of it from me before. He did just what I had asked him to do. It instantly worked. The guy left and in the endorsements section of my web site, www.gigdust.com, you can see this story coming from Will stating that at a date six weeks later that pad had not stuck again. I really don’t know how long it lasted that guy but six weeks was long enough.

I saw Will a short while after that and he had been trying the dust in the shop. He advised me to market it, as this was something that was needed by players all over the world. So I decided to try it. I didn’t have any money to start the project with so I sold my King Soprano and my Selmer alto sax to raise the money to get started.

It got to be an involved thing—I had to figure out packaging (bottles), caps for the bottles, a name for the product, labels, and much more came into play. I finally got all of this together and then came the big hurdle—HOW IN THE WORLD TO MARKET IT? I talked with my good friends Chip and Pat Averwater, the owners of Amro Music Co. in Memphis. They were very helpful and gave me some ideas on starting. It started as a mustard seed and has just grown slowly ever since. It is still in its infancy but word of mouth is helping it to grow each week.

It wasn’t too long before I realized that even though the dust will work by itself, it works much better when placed on a clean pad. It should be put on a dirty pad in an emergency situation only. The pad sticks because there is "CRUD" on it. Thus I developed the "Crud Patch" to clean the pad prior to dust application. This took some experimentation as well, for most materials will leave fibers on the pad surface or tone hole rim after cleaning and this means "microscopic" leaks are left there. I had to find a material that would prevent this, get down into the crease in the pad made by the tone hole edge, and yet not harm the leather or fish skin pads in any way. It took some time but I finally found it. When the patch is used to clean the pad and then the dust is applied with a pipe cleaner or Q-tip the results are amazing.

I don’t really know much more to add to what has been written here except that I do get a good feeling in knowing that I am helping players all over the world with their performance problems and it is always nice to get a letter or E-mail post stating how much they appreciate these products. By the way---I haven’t made that million dollars yet and there is no danger of that happening for it is a low profit item. I still don’t have an alto or soprano sax but I have something worth more - satisfaction.

Charlie A.