Flute Repair

Flutes may be small but they're complicated instruments; their keys have to be adjusted to work together and the pads have to seal the tone holes completely, preferably with  the lightest touch of the flutist.

The most common flute problems we see in the repair shop are:

  • Notes (usually low notes) are difficult to play or won't play at all 
  • Keys don't move freely or don't work together
  • Body is bent or dented

The first problem, notes that are difficult to play, is caused by air leaks.  The white or cream pads under the keys are supposed to seal the air from their tone holes.  If they don't seal well, the flutist has to mash the keys or blow harder to get the note.  If the leak is big enough, the note won't play at all.  flute pads

Leaks are sometimes due to keys being bent out of position; the technician can often make some quick adjustments and fix this problem. 

More often though, leaks are due to pads deteriorating.  Pads are small pieces of felt covered with a thin skin; the felt makes the pad soft to conform to the tone hole and the skin seals the air.  As pads age the thin skin gets brittle and cracks or tears, allowing air to seep through.  Sometimes you can see tears in the skin and fibers of felt sticking through.  The only solution for this problem is replacing the leaking pad, carefully seating it to the tone hole for a good seal.  (Unfortunately when one pad has deteriorated the others usually have also, in which case replacing just the torn pad wouldn't fix the problem for long.  Replacing all the pads is never a welcome expense but the flutist is often surprised by how much better the flute plays and with good care the new pads will last a long time.)Flute technician

Keys that don't move freely occasionally have frozen pivot screws or rods, but usually the keys have simply been bent.  The technician realigns them for free movement.  In most cases he'll also need to replace a few pads whose seats no longer match their tone holes.

A dented or bent body is a scary sight but with a little time a good technician can remedy the problem.  First he restores the shape of the body using special flute mandrels and tools.  Then he realigns the keys to operate smoothly.  Finally he replaces pads that no longer seat properly.  

A good flute that is repaired properly should play as well as it did when it was new.  And a good flute that is maintained correctly can last a lifetime.