So, ya wanna repair flutes?

Observed Realities

There are many reasons why this is the outlook for flute repair. Principally, there are a lot of flutes, but they are mostly in the hands of people who do not know or do not care if their flute is in working order - most people think their flute needs no repair. Less predominately, those who do care about their flute and get repairs have social requirements of their repair person.

That being said, if you are interested in flute repair, you might start to consider what part of your life flute repair will be. Will it be a beloved hobby, a practical convenience for your own instrument, or is it a business that will engender many challenges in an inhospitable market?

The Work Itself

Some operations take hours. Some very specific repairs take less than fifteen minutes.

A major concern is pad work. Pads must snuggly and uniformly contact their tone hole. However, there is a lot of opportunity for variances in a tone hole, the pad itself, or the related key cup, to create a small opening between the pad and the tone hole. We call these openings leaks. Pad work is the matter of remedying these and other leaks by installing new pads or adjusting extant installations of pads; one must be delicately sensitive in order to hold keys and leak-finding tools to locate leaks. Then, it takes some experience to know how best to apply paper shims under the pad to effect needed change between the pad and the tone hole. It is wholly different to apply pads using the method of heat and moisture.

Good eyesight doesn't hurt either, in that some things about leaks are visible, but very small (a few thousandths of an inch is 'big' is the world of padding).

Another major concern is mechanical work. The integrity of tubes, the fit and motion of keys, sometimes the sturdiness of anchoring ribs require tooling, and more. Burnishers, swedging tools, reamers, tools for manipulating springs, mandrels, and files all call to mind operations on metal - to straighten, to press fit, to shape. There are also 'hot' operations, applying tiny torches in order to solder, or applying other heat sources for floating pads (one alternative to shims). Here, too, a few thousandths of an inch decides whether the job was done right.

Some of the work is very repetitious. You must be patient to be ready for many repititions of small, fiddly work. You will sometime assemble and disassemble the same small springs and screws to service a single pad many times. Or you may take many hours to finish a surface for luster, by going over it and over it and over it. But you must also be decisive and thoughtful to keep moving, to use your time efficiently. Maybe it would be good to be OCD!

While you work, you might sometime spill a sizeable amount of oil or alcohol, or drop a tray of small padding supplies. It could take a while to clean the situation up. Or you might drop a small screw and spend hours locating it.

A good repair tech, Nancy Shinn, once said that the two things clients want to know are how much a given job will cost and how long it will take. Consequently, a repair tech is frequently under pressure to proceed at someone else's convenience, to hurry up or work at odd hours. There is a major professional flute shop where the phone often rings at three am.

You may see many interesting flutes - odd antiques and fine professional models, or a flutes with incredible damage that leaves you wondering how such a thing could happen. And there could be plenty of children's instruments.

One of the best things is working with an instrument that you don't expect much from, and then when you finish building it for the last time, it resonates wonderfully!

And if it is going to be a business for you, consider that there may be many hours spent on the phone negotiating with suppliers or hosting calls from curious individuals asking after your services. Or maybe you'll even get a call from your client where they say their flute played better after you worked on it than when it was new.

The Business

Sure enough, it can help to have a business model. Loosely speaking, all repair businesses have the same model: set up shop, have clients come in for repair work, satisfy the clients, get paid. Of course it is more complicated than this. Your business model should account for start up costs (training and tooling), pricing, at least generally identify who your clientale is going to be (your market), account for on-going costs ('overhead'), and visualize certain rules or policies that determine how you will handle transactions generally and specifically, and more. Imagination and common sense help determine a business model, which will identify your other obstacles.

The start in flute repair can be straight forward. It can help to study Jim Phelan's Guide to the Flute and Piccolo and T. Boehm's The Flute and Flute Playing . One approach is to train with certain schools (such as Western Iowa Technical Community College, Minnesota State College Southeast Technical at Redwing, and Eldred Spell's courses at Western Carolina University ) or certain teachers (such as Jonathon Landell, and Jeff Smith's professional development apprenticeship ) and continue to get certification with certain manufacturers (such as Straubinger ). It is also possible to apprentice with certain flute makers, which is not straight forward because it is dependent on the individual maker's personal and private criterion, which can be quite subjective (maybe it doesn't hurt to ask). However one goes, one should be collecting tools and materials you learn about during training ($4,000US would be a modest tool budget to start and $10,000US would be more sufficient).

The next obstacle is attracting a clientale. If you have a lot of friends whose flutes need repair, and they do not question your abilities, your business will be cut out for you. Most of us have to sell in order to get business.

Attracting a clientale may not be so straight forward, though. People will have a lot of reasons for not working with you. For example, over time, this writer has heard remarks by some who wont take their flute to a male, some who wont take their flute to a repair person unless that repair person has a large store front, some who wont take their flute to a given repair person unless it is the same repair person that the principle flutist of the nearest world-class orchestra takes their flutes to, some who wont take their flute to a given repair person unless that person is a NFA Young Artist winner, some who wont take their flute to a given repair person unless a certain number of their 'friends' already take their flutes to that same given person, and some who wont take their flute to anyone unless that person resides in a certain city, such as Boston. Often, however, people seem to take their flute to the concern that sold it to them - the individual, the store, the factory - hence, if you wont to work with flutes and make money, it has been said that the money is actually in sales. And with certain regularity, they will take their flutes where they end up playing the best - price and location don't seem to matter.

Also, there are many types of competition complicating the business. For example, it is possible that a person you go to in order to train may misinform you because they know that once you set up shop, you might be among their competition and so they will discredit you along the lines of misinformation to your potential clients. Further, as you set up shop, remember that you are not unique - others are doing and have done the exact same thing, and those others may want the same clients you are expecting; it would be disingenuous for them to slander you, but nothing stops their partisan sychopants, retainers, and other allies from whispering to discredit you. And while you may find that some of your competitors are your clients, you may experience difficulty at the point money is supposed to change hands with them.

Keeping a client has a certain penalty: this is because flutists make a point of talking about the people around them and you will not have a chance to protest any unfavorable comments, while the flutists who listen to such gossip and act on it seem to be many. If people do not like you, it can be as if the only way you can have clients is if all the flutists forget to say something bad about you behind your back.

So regardless of any opinions, attracting a flute clientale is both a confidence game and a social political feat.

People who do not know the flute community will tell you to advertise in order to attract flute clients. However, since flute clients are generally acquired 'word-of-mouth,' it is pointless to try and sell somebody your own services: the fact that you are selling may discredit your work - the work should sell itself. Your skill thus must be beyond question, and you can't afford any interlopers, coming between your self and clients, who will attempt to redefine you and your flute repair practice. Such people may be flute teachers with an bizarre agenda or even highly placed executives with an established and otherwise reputable flute factory or dealership.

And conducting the business is not necessarily straight-forward. A very few of your clients will attempt to interpret and redefine your conduct and your policies to obtain some psychological and social or monetary advantage. Such exploits are abusive, but you have no legitimate defense other than not serving them.

Still, there is little in the world more rewarding than giving everything you can to put an instrument in order, and having it turn out smooth, responsive, and colorful when you hear it in concert next.

And lastly, the business is most likely to be un-even. For some periods there wont be any, and others there will be more than you can do. It can take twenty years to develop a steady clientale.

Closing Thoughts