The Importance of Key Fit

I've found this to be one of the most often overlooked steps in woodwind instrument repair. It can be time consuming and expensive, and money isn't growing on trees these days. It's not deemed an "essential service" by most technicians (sadly, including myself). When a customer comes in and says "just make it work for as little money as possible," I usually don't include key fitting into that procedure, save for extreme examples where the key needs it to function at all.

However, I believe it should be essential. I wish people wouldn't choose to pay as little as possible. But they do. I wish they would come in and say "make this instrument the best it can be." But they don't. Properly fit keys feel better, pads and adjustments last longer, instruments sound better, the list goes on and on. Below is a short video in which I show you some examples of what bad key fit looks like, and why it should be addressed before ever replacing a pad.

Sadly, we don't live in a world where money is no object, so I know performing a full key fitting on every instrument that crosses my bench will never be a reality. But one can dream...