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Key Clamps: What Do You Think?

Key Clamps: Do You Use Them?


  • Total voters
    18

Helen

Content Expert Saxophones
Staff member
Administrator
Key clamps seem to be a contentious issue sometimes. Some people swear by them, while others seem to swear at them.

I started using key clamps about 8 years ago. They do seem to make a difference in keeping my horns regulated longer. I use them whenever I take my horns out of the house. I haven't noticed any undue wearing of the pads, springs, or any other of the reputed problems associated with their use.

I'm curious to know what other players' experiences with them are. I ones I have are The Horn Doctor Sax-$aver$.

I don't have a set for my low A bari, so for that one I ended up just shaving some wine corks down for the bell keys. Seems to do the trick, but if I could still find a set for the low a horn, I would get them. I also don't have them for the bass obviously, so there too I have just shaved down some wine corks again for the bell keys. But then I suspect just playing a vintage bass will knock it out of alignment!
 
I use them if I'm traveling a large distance (and if I remember to put them on). Otherwise I don't use them.
 
I use them on all 5 of my saxes - all the time. Paul Maslin got me started on this a few years ago. I have to say that I'm a believer. My repair bills are way down. I take all my horns to Paul once a year for a tune up and lube job, and for 3 years in a row he hasn't had to do much besides replacing the odd cork here and there. The pads are seating well and not sticking at all.
 
Depends upon the pressure of the keyclamps.

If they are light then they should be okay. The more pressure, the more potential of it creating further indentation into the pad.

I had one horn in for service where the keys were sticking because the toneholes were going a good 1/8 inch into the pad. had to replace the pads.

I normally wedge the keywork to keep the mechanisms closed. I have keyclamps but rarely use them.
 
Modern key clamps were invented almost 40 years ago by Les Dickson, a repairman in Birmingham Alabama (I think). As I remember, I met him when he had moved to a different city, and I bought my first clamps then.

Les' clamps were made from very light spring steel, and custom fitted to each brand of saxophone or flute. Once the plastic covering on my flute clam wore through, and he sent me a whole new set of clamps for free.

A few years later, at a NAPBIRT convention (National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians), I saw similar clamps made by Mamco on display. I asked about the similarity. I was told that the Mamco clamp maker had once worked with Les Dickson, but the clamps were not a patentable idea.

Trouble is, Les Dickson had already obtained a patent on the clamps. I later found out that Les was extremely upset about the patent infringement, but was unable to mount legal action against copiers.

Dickson's clamps were better. Lighter wire, more adjustable, better dealer support. Les Dickson wasn't good at marketing, he just made a good product, and he got screwed big time. I'll never buy clamps from anyone else.
 
I could see where he might not be willing to mount an infringement action against the infringer, but there would be no way that he would not be able to do so (unless he refused to do so, which is sort of a circular way of saying it. The holder of the patent has to take the action to make the recovery, but that option is always open to them.

On small profit items, it's usually not worth the effort to go the infringement route. Not enough return there for the amount of money that you would have to invest in the attorney to prosecute the action. (The government will not do it for you.)

Despite being both expired and relatively simple to design to, to my knowledge no one ever attempted to infringe on my patent for a woodwind musical instrument ligature. I still sell a few a year, but the marketing costs needed to do it on a big scale combined with the unconventional nature of it.
 
SOTSDO said:
Despite being both expired and relatively simple to design to, to my knowledge no one ever attempted to infringe on my patent for a woodwind musical instrument ligature. I still sell a few a year, but the marketing costs needed to do it on a big scale combined with the unconventional nature of it.
Do you have picture of that lig? Does it involve packing rope and candle wax? ;)
 
I have them for my Low A bari. I use the once for the bell keys almost all the time, but not the ones for the rest of the keys. I keep my tensions wicked tight so the rest of the keys tend not to flop around on their own, but the low C and down flop around quite a bit.
 
Here is my opinionated opinion on this fascinating subject.

If a saxophone is set up with the proper linking materials, the pads are installed correctly, and the regulation properly set there is no need for key clamps. To those who say that they are helpful when traveling I would respond that should the vehicle bounce, the keys may go up and down---just what they were intended to do while playing.

Contrary to what some people believe, the "seat" or indentation in the pad does not create the airtight seal over the tonehole. It is the pad being perfectly flat and perfectly oriented in its keycup to the perfectly flat tonehole. When properly installed, pads are given a very shallow "seat" that is put into the leather surface using heat and/or light pressure. This "seat" does not go away if key clamps are not used to keep the normally open keys closed when the sax is not in use. Anyone who has opened a case of a "closet horn" that hasn't been played in 20 years can attest to that fact. The pad "seat's" are still in the pads.

Every anecdotal proof given that someone "has used key clamps for years and their sax stays in regulation" can be matched with someone else's anecdotal proof that they have never used key clamps and their sax stays in regulation just fine. There may be a valid argument to close the large bell keys of a bari sax when traveling. This would not to keep the seat in the pad, but to keep the long key arms from bending if the case were to take a hard blow. This is especially true on older models that do not have the double arms.

Key clamps, in my opinion are not necessary and can actually cause problems if they exert too much pressure on the keys and cause the seats in the pads to become too deep.
 
I prefer not using key clamps and especially for people with my repair/adjustment for several reasons. In my experience after an excellent adjustment of a saxophone, it simply doesn't need key clamps. Maybe if the instrument is shipped etc. but even then, with the way a saxophone is in a case, I doubt it would really make a difference. The keys will probably only move the same as they move when playing.

Some players claim the key clamps help keep adjustment i.e. when they take the saxophone out of the case it imediately plays ok. However in every case of this I've actually had the chance the check the saxophone, it didn't have a good adjustment. So it was always a band-aid for a bad condition of the saxophone.

There are a few problems with key clamps. First, the adjustment of the stacks is the most delicate and accurate on the saxophone. A good adjustment is done to an extremely accurate level. Key clamps, even with light pressure, can mess with that.

Key clamps essentially make the open keys similar to closed keys. You can notice a lot of times closed pads like palm keys, low Eb, etc. will be ruined first. Although the open keys will still be open while playing, it will make them more like closed keys and this can make them ruin faster.

So IME with an excellent adjustment, keeping the keys open will make the pads last longer and the adjutment more secure and last longer also. So I don't recommend key clamps unless to compensate for bad adjustment (and for some reason not get a good adjustment instead).
 
I need to provide this thread to sooo many people. I've only had key clamps when they came with the instrument and usually discard them immediately. But I didn't have any experience for more groups of people and cases. What has been said by Clarnibass and Jbtsax matches what I would expect to be true. Thanks guys.
 
I have a set but never use em, but I would were I to be traveling a long distance and expected some bumping or jarring during the trip. my playing is either local or within 100 miles max & even then my heavy hard shell Selmer treypac case is protection enough. locally I tote a protec cause the case my VII alto came in weighs a ton when loaded.
 
Do you have picture of that lig? Does it involve packing rope and candle wax? ;)

I'm a bit late at getting back on this (it never showed up as a new posting in the past), but to answer your question, it involves neither. I have yet to be able to upload a photo here, but the short description of the ligature is that it uses a thin strip of back-to-back hooks and loops of a hook and loop fastener system (known to most as Velcro®, wound around the mouthpiece/reed combination in a helical fashion, and secured to itself on the side of the mouthpiece away from the reed.
 
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