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Why Our Repairs Are Stable and Reliable Flute & Piccolo Annual Maintenance (COA Plus) Description of Repairs, Overhaul, and Repad Procedures Flute & Piccolo Repair Prices How Often Does My Flute or Piccolo Need an Overhaul? Scheduling and Turnaround Times Flute and Piccolo Replacement Parts Flute & Piccolo Repair FAQ's

Repairs and Modifications, New Products & Info

Professional Flute and Piccolo repair services are the cornerstone of the Cincinnati Fluteworks. A thorough understanding of manufacturers' techniques and many years of experience in instrument building, restoration, and mechanism design enables us to offer guaranteed professional repairs of every kind. It also equips us to make modifications to suit the needs of each individual flutist. Pat North, Director, has over 35 years of experience in repairs of any type of flute imaginable.

Why Our Repairs Are More Stable and Reliable

There are specific techniques and materials that make our repairs more stable and last longer than other repair shops. Here's a sampling:

• Before padding the flute, the stability of the mechanism is assessed. Excess movement on all axis, left and right, back and forth, is gauged and corrected. Many aspects of a flute contribute to how well your instrument will wear, stay in adjustment, and how long your pads will last. These details are checked, corrected, and tweaked using techniques only repair people accustomed to building flutes employ. This experience, in addition to the patience, and fine touch of a flutist, makes a world of difference between us and most repair shops.

• I suppose if just reading about our procedures would make other repair shops also do them, their repairs would be as reliable too. However, the skill, fastidiousness, and experience of what works and what doesn't, as well as 35 years of repairing handmade professional flutes, shows up in the stability and longevity of our repairs. Clients often comment that their instrument plays better than when they were new.

Great Products Also Contribute To This Stability

• We keep the largest inventory of Manufacturer's Original Parts in the US. If your Yamaha piccolo needs a replacement rib wood screw, we have it. If your Mateki missing a french hole pad retainer (grommet, bushing), we have it. No long waits for simple parts. No forcing the wrong sized part to do the job of an OEM. Your instrument will be like it was when it was new.


• We only use Moisture-proof Shims in padding Pro and Pre-pro flutes. They are impervious to moisture and make a much more stable seat for the pad. Moisture is the enemy of pads, adjustments, and the paper shims that make pads seat. It makes them swell and leak. With moisture-proof shims, the pad will last longer without as much maintenance or downtime for repairs. We shim to .0005 inches. That's much less than the thickness of a human hair! Shimming this finely with plastic and moisture-proof shims takes more time during the repair and the shims are much more expensive than traditional paper shims, but the benefits are tremendous


• We use the best Italian Lucien Pisoni Deluxe pads on even student overhauls and complete pad jobs. They are a firm pad that resists packing down and the leaks that a packed down soft pad creates. The skins are tough and clear (double yellow skins). A firm pad that seals well makes articulation (tonguing) and response much quicker and clearer on any flute. Though these pads cost us more, they make for a longer lasting repair. Ask us about Straubinger and Schmidt Gold pads for your Pro flute.

A Word on Tone Holes

Many "lesser advised" repair techniques use filing tone holes as a way to make a pad seat easier, and short cut the time it takes to pad an instrument. Surprisingly, some repair people working on Pro instruments file tone holes. Not only can filing a tone hole change the intonation of the flute, something manufacturers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars perfecting, it greatly compromises the structure of the chimney hole. We do not file tone holes unless they have been damaged in an accident and filing is imperative.

Scheduling Repairs and Turnaround Times

Meeting your deadlines is important to us! We committ ourselves to meeting your schedule deadlines and quick as possible turnaround times. Please phone or write us about scheduling. We'll get you right in and get your instrument back in your hands as quickly as possible. In addition, be sure to tell us the brand, model, age, and description of the problem (or maintenance) in your e-mail. We look forward to making you a happy customer!

Contact us at (513) 579-8294 or e-mail us at info@fluteworks.com.

For details on what is included in each type of repair: Annual Maintenance, Overhauls, Repads, Repad with Mechanism.

Repair FAQ's

These are Questions and Answers that clients often ask. We'll keep adding to this column. Send us your questions and we'll be happy to answer them.

How Often Does My Flute or Piccolo Need an Overhaul?

Here are the symptoms: If you have noticed any sluggishness in tonguing response, weakness of sound in the low octave, or difficulty playing an even chromatic scale, your flute probably is the culprit. Leaks and lost action tend to sneak up on the flutist. While leaks may seem minor, any leak affects the response of the entire instrument. Compensation with increased pressure may seem to help, but slows technique. It also makes the leak progressively worse and causes further deterioration of the pads. In addition, after a year or two, the headjoint cork will begin to shrink from the effects of moisture. This also causes leaking and sluggish response. Because this leak is not readily pinpointed (as with a leaky pad), the player is often blamed for the instrument's shortcomings.

The CIncinnati Fluteworks gives each repair, whatever size or level of flute, our complete, professional attention. Our workmanship and materials are fully guaranteed. We also specialize in many kinds of personalized modifications to bring out the best qualitities of an instrument (and the player!). Our years of experience with these modifications have made us leaders in the field.

What Level is My Flute Model?

If you aren't sure what level your flute model is, please phone and describe the flute to us. We're happy to help you figure it out.

• Student Level Model: Closed hole, entirely plated. Beginner flutes.
• Step-Up Models: "Intermediate" and "Advanced" models with silver headjoint (or silver head and body), open holes, plated mechanism.
• Pre-Professional Models: Pointed key arms, open holes (i.e. older Trevor James Masters or Reictal 1 Models).
• Professional (Handmade): Any handmade flute (various descriptions).

A note about Pre-Professional flute models:

In the last few years, more "hybrid" models have been introduced. They are a wonderful combination of some handmade parts, like the headjoint or mechanism, married to other parts or sections that are more "assembly line produced". They make a great playing, but less expensive instrument than a completely handmade professional flute. Because of these more handmade original building procedures, more professional repair techniques are needed to "make the flute play and look like it did when it was new". Our prices reflect that additional care, time, professional parts and materials we use to make them new again. Most other shops use student type procedures and materials when working on them. If your Pre-pro flute was repaired as if it was a Student level flute, it would no longer play like the wonderful Pre-professional flute that it is.

Annual Maintenance & Adjustments are Crucial for the Flute to Keep Its Value ("Clean, Oil, Adjust" Plus)

Periodic overhauls (every three to four years, depending on use) and Yearly Maintenance to make your existing pads seal perfectly again, will keep your instrument in optimum playing condition. This is critical in keeping tonguing response and attacks as quick and responsive as possible. Annual Maintenance (also known as "Clean, Oil, Adjust Plus") will correct any leaks or problems before they become irreversible. This aill also help stretch the time between overhauls.

Procedures performed:

• A complete diagnosis is made of your instrument, and you are given an exact price quote for your approval, before we start the work.
• Each instrument is play tested and assessed for response, leaking, lost key motion (up and down, back and forth), and mechanism freedom of axis movement. If the mechanism is sluggish, it may be necessary to remove section pins and thoroughly clean inside the hinges (tubes) to completely free the mechanism. This would be assessed in the diagnosis and an additional charge, if any, would be quoted at that time.
• Tenons are cleaned and assessed for fitting. Adjustments are made (with your permission).
• Pad skins are examined under high powered magnification for holes, excessive hairiness, or the beginnings of holes and tears. Any perforation of the skin degrades the sealing and response of the flute. A recommendation would be made to replace the offending pad(s). Pricing of individual pad replacement is extra and is quoted in the diagnosis.
• Each existing pad is removed and reseated by shimming (partial shims), the same way the pad is seated when new. We do not bend keys to try to make the pad seat! Not even on entry level beginner flutes!
• All adjustment corks, bumpers felts and kicker felts are checked and replaced if necessary.
• Keys are adjusted and lost motion removed.
• The headjoint cork is removed, examined, and replaced if necessary. Headjoint corks seal optimally for about a year.
• Each key and the entire flute is wiped with alcohol to remove dust and oils. If a more extensive cleaning is needed or polish is requested, an additional charge would be quoted in the diagnosis. We do not buff, we only polish by hand.
• Silicone is applied to the pad skins to help resist moisture, keep them from drying out and to help them retain suppleness.
• The embouchure hole is gently cleaned. Any lip balm or epithelia (skin cells) inside the embouchure hole degrades your tone and tonguing response.
• The instrument is again play tested by a professional flutist.
• Springs are regulated (with your permission).
• Dust is removed from the case interior.

Click here for Annual Maintenance Prices.

Hand Cutting of Embouchure and Tone Holes

We are nationally recognized for our innovative work with these modifications. If your flute is stuffy or stiff sounding, it would probably benefit from our skillful hand cutting of the embouchure hole. Each headjoint is individually assessed to ensure maximum improvement. Tone hole fraizing remedies excessive cracking of notes between intervals. Please refer to our Data Page, Fraizing and Undercutting, for a more detailed explanation of these procedures.

Click here for Hand Cutting of Embouchure and Tone Holes Prices.

© 2011 Cincinnati Fluteworks, Inc