I suppose I should clarify;
In many instances, yes it is required. Very often adjustments must be made by bending. In this instance, since there were leaks in every pad/tonehole, I'd be looking at leveling toneholes and keys and doing pad work. Perhaps I'm a bit finicky about changing pads also when doing key bending on key arms/pad cups to remove leaks, as it is very difficult to get any pad with a prior conformed seat (either a good seat or a bad one - Selmer comes to mind here) to properly re-seat just by bending keys (including or not including re-heating/shifting of an old pad). Leveling of keys and toneholes can not be done with the keys on an instrument. That was the impression and vision which went through my mind upon reading the original post and would not attempt to do this type of work during a "while you wait" visit. We have clients watch us work on their instruments everyday, and this doesn't bother us a bit. I suppose that with the players understanding that this is a band-aid quick fix repair for a previous poor repair or poor manufacturing, one should seek out any port in a storm. I've seen some techs with gorilla paws that bend and wrench everything without properly analyzing the entire picture.
