St icky P ads

[Anonymous]

recently some of my keys have been sticking, somewhere between mid G and mid Bb, when i’m chromatically going up or down.

I found the root of my problem, i lifted up each pad on my sax, using a cotton bud, i shoved it in each hole, spun it round the inside ring of the holes in the sax body – yuck – from some of the holes i lifted out a complete circle of saliva that over the months had congealed into a solid mass just like the wax inside our ears. It came out and looked just like a toe nail.

Result – when i played the sax, the notes where a lot crisper and had a kick . Seems like when i was playing, saliva would turn the solid dried out gunky rings into a sticky circular mass, that was sticking to the pads.

This was a lot different to pulling a piece of paper through the pads, which was a waste of my time.

[William Cingolani]

Tell me more. Cotton bud? Is that a cotton swab?

[Anonymous]

very similar, cotton swabs are much longer (used in getting at the back of the throat), you guys in the US may have a different name for cotton buds?

but they look like this

https://www.medisupplies.co.uk/Medical-Consumables/Swab-Sticks?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=cotton%20swab&utm_campaign=Cotton-Wool&utm_content=Swab%20Sticks

[Mel]

sxpoet – Good post. I have the same problem in this area and also use cotton buds for cleaning around the holes.

[Anonymous]

@Mel – it helps if you play the sax for a couple of hours, and then clean it – everything is soaking wet round the holes.

[Mel]

Yes. I use paper towel strips after every practice and I also run a cloth thru it and use one of the moisture rods in case I missed anything.

[Mel]

Got me some lighter fluid and cigarette paper also!

[Anonymous]

My sax is 3 years old, so i might put it in for a service (clean up)

[JD Smith]

I had a single pad that was sticky, the F#. I used an old trick of placing a relatively new dollar bill between the pad and tone hole. Then while holding the pad closed, pull the bill out. Swap ends with the bill and do it again. That was over six months ago and I gig with a band 10-15 times a month. Still no more sticking.

[john]

ya the dollar bill is good because it has just enough ruffness to clean.
you can help maintain this with those theater pads I talked about here because they have a slight coating of powder which could help further:

How To Fix a Sticky Saxophone Pad

[Author]

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