Fluteland.com Flute Message Board

The pads should be snug, but not so tight that you have to force them into the cup. When the pad is placed in the cup, if they are too big, the skin will tend to wrinkle and cause problems with getting a good seat on the tone hole. The pad should just be in contact with the cup all the way around so...

Flute joints should never be waxed or greased. Wax or grease will actually attract dirt and make the joints difficult to assemble and cause wear.

It's best to just simply keep the joints clean. Occasionally you can use alcohol on a soft cloth to wipe the joints clean.

The end of the headjoint is called the crown. It should not be loose. It is used to adjust the position of the cork stopper in the closed end. This affects how the notes of the flute are in tune with each other. The cork needs to be set in the correct position and then left alone - i.e. don't turn t...

Glad to hear the post straightening was a success! Generally, to measure for pads, I find the best way is to use calipers to measure the inside of the pad cup and then use that size pad. Occasionally, depending upon the cup geometry, you might need to go up or down a half size (.5 mm) to get a good ...

Push the headjoint in to raise the pitch.
Pull it out to lower the pitch.

Long tones are good for developing the lower notes. Do you know another experienced piccoloist that could try your piccolo to be sure it responds well all the way down to the low D? Piccolos tend to be much more sensitive to very small leaks and even brand new piccolos can sometimes get out of adjus...

If the key is higher than normal when not pressed, most likely a felt or cork under the C key kicker (the key foot) has fallen off. That would cause the key to be too high in it's normal position. If you just had a COA in April, I'd take it back to the shop that did it. They might have replaced it a...

When you say the key has lost "tension" do you mean that when pressed down it does not return to the normal up position? If so, it could be that the spring on the C key has become unhooked from it's saddle or possibly that since you haven't played it a lot recently, the oil may be old and gummy. Whe...

Yeah, probably not. But if you have the broken parts, a good tech can silver solder it back together.

T123|123 same as flute...

I second Fluteguy's suggestion on the paper. You can buy precut paper circles in various diameters that are pre-punched with holes in the center. For pros, that can save a lot of time when working a lot of flutes. For a one-off repair, just cut what you need. If you need thicker shims, you can use a...

I think there's room here to discuss all flavors of flute, so to speak. As Flute_Star3 indicated, most of the discussion here centers on the classical flute, but I play a lot of different winds, too. Besides the classical flute, I play piccolo, tin whistle, recorder, Chinese Dizi, a PVC flute that I...

Moondaddy, Based on your comments, I think you can probably attempt to straighten the posts. This can be done by tapping it to nudge it in the correct direction. I'll describe how to do this as safely as possible. Ideally, you should have a flute body mandrel to insert while doing this, but since yo...

Generally, posts can be straightened, but there are the risks that I mentioned. Even professional flute repair technicians occasionally have a post or rib come unsoldered. They can minimize the risk, but there's no guarantee. However, a pro can always resolder a loose post/rib. First a few questions...

...and has a couple slightly bent posts. ... I don't want to discourage you, but bent posts can be more of a problem than you might think. On some older flutes, posts are soft-soldered directly to the tube whereas today posts are usually silver soldered to a rib which in turn is soldered to the tub...