Replacing the pads is not as easy as you might think and requires a fair amount of skill. It's not something that the average person should try to do at home. I am speaking from experience here! "Worse case: u have to pay the $$ to get it done right...which shouldnt be any more before or after u do it yourself." WRONG!!! Sometimes the rod screws can be a pain to get out! If you strip one out or break one, you're in for a serious repair! Sometimes the tech can drill our the screw and replace it. Sometimes they need to unsolder a post! It just depends on where the screw is located. "Only $$ u'd be out is the cost of the pads & glue etc themselves. Which a good repairman should be able to take off the new pads u put on wrong and reistall them right" IWRONG AGAIN! If you bring a basket case into most shops, they're not going to be too happy at all. First, they're going to check to see what you might have messed up and make sure that you did everything right, and then they're going to have to sort through your disaster, fix your mistakes and etc. It can cost you MUCH MORE than if you just took the horn to a tech in the first place! AND, the pads may or may not be able to be salvaged! So lets say your lucky and you get the sax apart without stripping, breaking or losing any of the rod screws. Are your pads the right type and size for your horn? You start taking the pads off your old Buescher and notice that they SNAP IN! You're set of Selmer style plastic resonator pads that you ordered for a Buescher sax are not going to fit! Ok, so you double checked to make sure you have the right pads. All the pads fit into their cups perfectly. You fitted the pads first, and then glued them in place. You're now ready to reinstall the keys. Now, lets up that you can remember what keys go where, that you put them back on in the right order, and for God sakes, don't bend anything trying to put them back on! Make sure you hook up the springs where they are supposed to go, and don't break or lose any springs! And the corks.....did you replace the cork stops on some of the keys? What about the felts? So you've got the horn together. You managed to get the action to light up and the springs are all hooked up right and the keys seem to open and close like they're supposed to. Pat yourself on the back, because most people would have given up long before this step! Now, grab your mouthpiece and lets see how you did. It squeaks like hell doesn't it? That's because the action is all out of adjustment and your keys aren't closing like they should. Now you need to get a leak light, and start checking to see which pads aren't closing all the way. This is a nightmare! I overhauled a Conn C Melody a few months ago that really gave me fits! I finally took it in after I got it about as good as I could get it myself, but still wasn't happy with it.

if anybody listened to all you negative people out there,we would not have anybody in the whole world who could strip a sax down,like the guy says ,how did the repair men learn to do it,not by listening to negative feedback from numbtys