I have a wooden clarinet that has a couple worn out pads. My uncle, a musician, told me that if I put some oil (the type you put on door hinges), that will make the pads swell and cover the holes more. Right now when I play I can hear some air coming through the holes. Is this something I should do or does anyone know anyway I can fix this without paying almost $200 to get it the pads replaced?

sounds like a dangerous idea... but I don't actually know.

Don't do that. If it's just a couple pads, then it won't cost much at all. $200 would be a full repad. I replace individual pads for my students all the time, but I re-seat pads that aren't sealing well about 3 times that often. I don't recommend re-seating the pads on your horn yourself, because it involves a small torch, but a repair place should be able to fix your couple of pads for cheap. Just make sure they only fix the problem areas. Sometimes they will suggest re-padding the whole horn even though it doesn't need it... kinda like car repairmen do. Good luck!

Ok...I went to Meyer's Music here in West Michigan and they gave me an estimate of $177 for repadding, but really it's only a couple of pads on the lower joint...I'll check out more repair places.

I had a few pads redone on
my clarinet last yearand it
only cost me around $30. Just
shop around and see who
can give you the best
price instrument. But i
definatly wouldn't use the oil
because who knows what that could
do to your clarinet?

-ash

That seems like a dangerous idea...even if it worked, you should probably have it done by a professional repair tech. I doubt they would suggest this method, however.