[ving]

Hello follks,

I recently picked up a Zephyr alto and it has about half (the lower stack) new pads with nylon resonators, but the upper stack is mainly old pads. I bought a set of precision pads with metal resos, I am wondering if it makes sense to have all the old pads replaced the metal resos and leave the other new nylon pads in? I want to keep cost as low as possible, and I would rather not fork over the dough for a complete repad right now. Just wondered if it would make sense to do all, or if half.half is commonly done...



ving

 

[ranran4]

sorry so late on this, just saw it.

To me, in a perefect world, due to the intonation variances between individual notes on a horn, it would seem beneficial it maybe each individual tone hole was evaluated differently and pads/resonators were apllied accordingly. I used to do a lot of mountain biking and I had a riding partner that put individual gears into his rear wheel stack. largest gear might be shimano, next might be schwinn, etc. because he evaluated each gear independently of each other. I think it may be the thing to look at on a sax in terms of each note.
Anybody tried this?

 

[Mal 2]

It should not matter all that much if you mix resonator materials, as long as they are similar in design. If the metal ones have a pronounced dome but the plastic ones do not, this might be a problem.

A "half re-pad" is not all that uncommon. Remember that the left hand stack figures into almost every note you play, but the right hand stack only comes into play on half of them. Re-padding the top half with resonators will have more effect than you might think.

My Dolnet bari has metal resonators on the top half and rivets on the bottom -- I never got around to finishing the job. The half re-pad had much of the desired effect I wanted (taking a bit of the fuzziness off the sound, centering it up), in addition to addressing some leaks.

 

[Carl H.]

I wonder what he did, and why this was ignored for 2 1/2 years?

 

[clarnibass]

My Dolnet bari has metal resonators on the top half and rivets on the bottom -- I never got around to finishing the job. The half re-pad had much of the desired effect I wanted (taking a bit of the fuzziness off the sound, centering it up), in addition to addressing some leaks.

Can you really be sure it wasn't just fixing the leaks that helped the problem? Getting rid of leaks always helps and when something else is done at the same time it's not really possible to judge that something else on its own. I assume the top stack repad not only got rid of leaks, but improved the feel and regulation of this area, improving playability even more.

Re changing resos on the top stack: A friend of mine bought a sax online, a bit of a gamble. Unfortunately, turned out he didn't like it much. That model came with the original pads which had very small metal resonators. A couple of (supposedly knowledgable) people suggested that using bigger normal size resonators would help this model. We tried that as a test by gluing regular size resonators on several pads, including most of the upper stack. Unfortunately there was no improvement or difference.

I have also played some saxophones with many different resonators on them. I remember one from not too long ago which had at least three different types of pads and four types of resonators. There was nothing about how it played that would suggest there was anything different than any saxophone with all the same pads and resos. Not proving anything but worth mentioning.

 

[milandro]

I have also played some saxophones with many different resonators on them. I remember one from not too long ago which had at least three different types of pads and four types of resonators. There was nothing about how it played that would suggest there was anything different than any saxophone with all the same pads and resos. Not proving anything but worth mentioning.

this could be a serious indication of the fact that the actual role, in sound production, of the different types of resonators could just be a wee-bit overrated

 

[ranran4]

this could be a serious indication of the fact that the actual role, in sound production, of the different types of resonators could just be a wee-bit overrated

I forget where I saw it but the question was asked: Did Bird play roopads?

 

[ving]

Ha, funny. I never got those pads I ordered, cancelled the order if I recall and my tech just put in some new pads where needed. Still have that horn, funny its already been 3 years. I use it as a knock around alto where I teach and also occasionally as a gigging horn for outside gigs in the summer. Never really got this in shape well enough to use more than that, the springs are really weak and as a result I don't find it reliable enough to use more than I do.

 

[Mal 2]

Can you really be sure it wasn't just fixing the leaks that helped the problem? Getting rid of leaks always helps and when something else is done at the same time it's not really possible to judge that something else on its own. I assume the top stack repad not only got rid of leaks, but improved the feel and regulation of this area, improving playability even more.

No, admittedly I can't rule out the fixing of leaks -- but most of the pads weren't leaking, just on the old side. Two were torn, but outside the tone hole. The only one that was ridiculously bad was LH3. When that one pretty much just plain fell out, I decided it was time to do the top half. I know I replaced some perfectly reasonable pads though, just to get resonators on them. I had replaced the palm keys just a couple years prior and I replaced them again as those had no resos at all, not even rivets.

 

[Flâneur]

I think after waiting 2 1/2 years for a response, the OP switched to Flugelhorn.