Boundless Flute

Back for a moment to help out a 14K Pearl with a bumped G #. 🧡

The following isn’t news if you’ve been watching my personal FB page, but for those who haven’t…

I’ve been pretty quiet lately on IG because…well, I put myself through coding bootcamp. 🙈

I love repairing flutes, but oof, it’s a tough way to make a living, even when you’ve got clients booked for months.

So, I decided to take the leap into a profession that could give me retirement and healthcare benefits, and still allow me to solve problems and help people.

If you’re so inclined, you can follow my adventures on Instagram at , and also as the person behind the scenes of the account (yup, I was lucky enough that the bootcamp I attended wanted to hire me! 🤩)

I’m not booking new repairs for the time being while I adjust to my new career, but I’m not selling my tools yet, either. 🛠

I hope 2022 treats all of you well - here’s to ever evolving and new adventures! 🤩

I am looking forward to having such a great team at my back! 🤩 Reposted from Flutistry Boston 🎉 :

⭐️PARTNERSHIP ALERT!⭐️⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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We are so excited to be partnering with Boundless Flute to better serve our community. If you are a client of Boundless Flute, you can now schedule your full-service repairs through Flutistry. This allows Sarah to spend more time on what she does best: repairing flutes!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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☎️If you are in need of a repair, give us a call today to schedule your repair consultation today! We are now booking appointments for spring and summer 🥳⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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{flute + artistry = flutistry}⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Overcompressed Straubinger pads are much more likely to tear, and they seal unreliably against the tonehole. That means more frustration and inconsistency for the player, and more expenses down the road because they’ll need more frequent adjustments and replacing sooner.

The first photo shows the center of the pad being pulled downward.

That puts too much strain on the skin and means it’s pulling too hard against the plastic rim of the pad...and that means it’s going to fail sooner along that edge than a pad that isn’t overcompressed.

This kind of compression is very common on vintage flutes that were designed for felt pads. Felt pads can be squished more than synthetic pads and be just fine.

When converting a flute to synthetic pads, though, you have to relieve this pressure. Unscrewing the pad screw a little seems like it would work, but if the screw doesn’t stop on something, the pad is unstable.

So, you have to either make the spud that the screw goes into taller, or make the washer sit higher on the pad, or even both.

Here, I’m using a tool to stamp a recess into the washer to create clearance for the pad. That extra bit of height allows the pad to sit flat. A flat pad will last much longer and be more stable than an overcompressed one! 🙌