Kasuru Saxophone Pads.

Kasuru Saxophone Pads are:

 Individually hand-made pads which are specifically custom made for the instrument to which they are to be fitted.

 (& NOT taken from a draw full of ready made pads)!

All coventional pads simply comprise of a disc of felt covered by an animal skin. However, there appears to be much debate

about which type of skin.

Now let's get real - skin is skin & whilst there are minor differences between Sheep, Goat, Calf, Horse, Kangaroo, Tiger, Human

or any other type of epidermis, non of the properties those differences produce, either mechanical or acoustic, have the slightest benefit or otherwise to a saxophone pad! If you were making a pair of shoes or gloves then one type may have properties that are more suited for that use -  but not in the case of saxophone pads.

Vastly more important than the type of skin covering, is what the skin is actually covering! Normally this would be a felt disc of either interwoven box cloth or pressed felt. It may even have a plastic film protecting the felt from moisture.
         Here's where a Kasuru Pad is so superior. No felt is used at all (or plastic film) & instead, 5 different materials are used, working togerther in order to produce the desired result refered to below.

Yes, for more years than I can remember I've been trying to apply the tremendous advantages of Superpads for clarinet to

the saxophone - without success!! They just don't work on saxes for a number of reasons, an obvious one being the much larger diameter of saxophone pads, which incidentally means that by a bit of reverse technology, they're now used on the bottom joints of bass clarinets.

But let's face it, most saxophones appear to seal pretty well from new anyway don't they? - Well yes & no!

Saxophones have a similar mechanism to flutes in that most of the keys you press will close an additional one or two keys at

the same time. In order to work correctly those 2 or 3 keys must shut exactly at the same time & it's not possible to regulate them to do so unless each one individually shuts correctly.  And as the materials from which they're made i.e. leather & felt, move independently under the influence of moisture & temperature, in fact they don't close together & it's only by pressing harder that this disparity between the keys is overcome (surely your teacher tells you not to do that - yea but without realising it your teacher's doing it as well)!! 

So it's the materials from which the pads are made (an animal skin covering felt in the case of a saxophone & bassoon or the

same animal's intestine covering  the felt in the case of a clarinet or flute), that's causing the problem.

The new KASURU pads for saxophone address all these problems.  They're  made from several

materials, each of which is there to do a specific job. They're designed to closely straddle the tone-hole rim & create a perfect seal, regardless of whether the tone-hole is flat or not and, unlike conventional leather pads, KASURU'S are unaffected by moisture & normal temperature changes & so will retain that seal they produce for years. 

How much & how long?

A  complete overhaul incorporating KASURU pads is £850 & includes anything & everything except

of course, dent removal or keywork alterations & it usually takes about a week.

This proceedure can't be compared to that of a standard overhaul as KASURU pads are individually hand made for the instrument when it's seen what's needed & it takes a day to simply make the pads, let alone fit them & do all the other things involved in overhauling a saxophone!

 A PhD Study by Dr. Erin Royer,  Saxophonist,    University of Western Australia.

In this study 4 New Yamaha YAS480 Saxophones, each having been fitted with different centres (reflectors) in conventional

leather pads, were electronically assessed & then given to 8 professional saxophonists for their subjective opinions. Each of them was subsequently given another new YAS480, i.e.Saxophone No 5, which had been re-padded by Woodwind & Co. with KASURU pads.

Below is a transcription of the resulting conversation between each player & the researcher.

 (1) I really loved sax 5. There were bits of it slightly different. I think there was resistance in 5 but I think it’s got to do with the tone colour. I’d say again I would like to spend more time with 5 and 4.

 (2) It was very different. Different, different. And I guess it was very good very working condition. If I tried it in a store I would probably be like, yeah, I like the saxophone but saxophone 3 in the first round was still my favourite.

 (3) Same horn it felt different under the fingers. Id put it up there with 3 and 4, but I still think I preferred 3. Actually 5, I felt I couldn’t push it. It felt like a ceiling.I can imagine that now with metal resonators it would be interesting.

 (4) It was weird. I feel like I want to spend more time with it. The tone of it was instantly different, but I didn’t mind the feeling of it. I liked the timbre of it. 

 (5) It was unusual to feel and listen to. It responded well and had some resonance to it.

(Researcher) I do think that’s a future of pads because they are synthetic, and they last a really long time, and they seal about 200% better than cow’s leather. That’s why its so, oh! when you play it.

 (6) I liked it the most. I think its as though someone had taken a student sax and removed all the identification and made it into a game changer. It felt like there was an extra presence to it.

 So (Researcher) Some people say I need that, and other people don’t want it but it seals 10 times better.

 (7) It felt more consistent. I liked the tone, it felt a bit darker and the intonation was better. The articulation seemed fine.

 (8) There was no massive difference in feel on the four saxophones but I had my suspicion on number 5. It was fine, but wasn’t my favourite out of the five. That one is just so different.

(Researcher) Its now out of all my saxophones, this the one I want to play. I don’t want to play my main sax and this student model feels better than my professional one.