Saxophone Pads

Saxophone pads. Do you look after them? Do you even know what they are? For something so crucial to creating sound on a saxophone the pads seem to be largely ignored by us players. Me included.

We take it for granted that when we pick up our sax the sax pads will be fine and work without complaint. Then it happens. A squeak. Small and barely noticeable at first but ultimately a sign that the saxophone pads you completely ignored may be about to bite back.

I'm not here to nag but I've learnt that actually you can't pick up yor sax, play for an hour or two and then put it away with no thought to looking after the sax or the saxophone pads.

Do that and you can pretty much guarantee that after only a short time the pads will start to stick.

Suddenly they are firmly glued to the tone hole rim and you are in there digging around with a finger or worse, a screwdriver trying to force the pad open.

So if you were stuck to something (think super glue and fingers) and someone or something forced you apart from whatever it was you were stuck to, would you be happy?

Do it repeatedly and how would you feel then. Pretty fed up.

This force then may also have the impact of putting the pad out of alignment with the tone hole and bingo! you've got a squeak.

Saxophone pads may be resilient but they do need some care and attention now and again. Take a little bit of time after playing to pamper your sax pads and they should see you through years of playing.

Photo by Tom Oates.
Reproduced under the
GNU free document licence

You may think a set of sax pads are cheap. At around £30 ($50) that's not too bad. However it's not the pads that cost. It's the skill of the technician that's the killer

You are paying for their skill at replacing the sax pads and the fact that your sax will still work afterwards

I do not recommend you do it yourself. Unless of course you are wanting to learn and are prepared to sacrifice the sax in the interests of knowledge

Saxophone Pads Care

When you are finished get your pull through and pull it through.

Get a cloth into the bell and wipe away the puddle that has appeared. (It also helps to eliminate any smells that may appear due to lack of care)

Get some papers and use them on the pads to absorb the moisture.

Use a pad saver as a final act of love for the sax pads.

There's no reason for anyone to have to prematurely replace their pads if they take the time to apply some TLC.

The fact that we have to is usually due to laziness or lack of time.

Saxophone pads are sturdy but they do need to be looked after. Disrespect them at your peril!

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