Ok so somebody sat on my six keyed Lehart flute last night and aside from wanting to murder them I have no idea what to do. The break is a the tenon. basically the tenon is broken off and the break also affects the g# key. I have seven gigs with my band in the next few days any advice? I’m going to see Ralph Sweet this afternoon?
That sounds awful. Hope it’ll never happen to me. It sounds like a very bad situation. I would probably try to get hold of a flute a soon as possible. Borrow from a friend or someone else. Talk to Ralph Sweet. He might be able to help you with borrowing a flute. Then spend the next few day’s trying to get as comfortable with it as possible. If nothing can be arranged that way, you can always play whistles thre whole time, as a last resort. Then contact Gilles Lehart and ask him to repair it. He should be able to do that, and if it’s damaged beyond repair you’ll have to replace the whole section, but it would have to be really crashed to need that. I think I recal seeing some repairs Terry McGee has done on his web site, including replacing whole tenons, but I’m not 100% sure.
Good luck to you. Hope you’ll be able to fix this some way.
I think Dave Copley has mentioned that a good repair for this kind of problem is to cut off the tenon and replace it . . . which might take more than a day! Ugh.
Maybe Sweet has a keyed flute you could borrow, or rent?
Stuart
the repair can be done in a day, but one long day.
I’d love to hear what Ralph had to say, and how could he help.
Just a quick suggestion. If you are thinking of sending it away for repair, it would make sense to send it to Gilles Lehart rather than, say, Terry McGee. I have a Lehart just like yours and would send it to Terry probably in your circumstances, but he’s just down the road from me.
Trying my best here not to be cruel
…but what are you going to do to
keep this unfortunate thing from
happening again. I made a flute stand
as soon as I acquired my new flute.
Didn’t want to have my keyless “baby” roll
off a table someplace or suffer the
same fate yours did. Hope ya get
her fixed ASAP…
I remember somebody here had the same problem, his son broke his R&R playing with it. I guess he found a solution, try a seach to recall that thread, it’s not so old, and ask him what he did.
Best is to send it to Gilles;If it’ impossible to fix, I’m sure Gilles can replace the broken joint.
Best
Philippe
It seems that wherever the flute resounds
clumsiness abounds!!
Yes, I myself am in the habit
of taking a lovely clay jar with me
and all my flutes sit in it awaiting their gig …
All the best.
He who sits on a flute
is a silly galute
And he who sits on a stool
is nobody’s fool …
Hello out there,
Ralph seems to think he can epoxy it back together, but the g# hole is probably a loss. I played whistle and melodeon at the two gigs I had this weekend and am hoping to get my baby back on Wed. or thurs. I was originally in a panic but worse things can happen. i’ve been to see Ralph before and he is probably the nicest guy on the planet. His manner and attitdue relaxed me quie a bit. His new Firth and Pond model flute is an excellent player. Small holes but still loud enough and the way you can ornament with smaller holes is a different story than the large holes of the Lehart. His new whistle isn’t too bad either. I generally have a bad case of instument carelessness but this has definitely made me think about getting steel boxes for the things. Thank God I was in Holyoke and not to far from his shop. I’ll let you know what turns up. Take Care, Patrick
Patrick, I had an Eb flute from Ebonite (SP) (one of those cheap Indian keyed things)fall, and the tenon broke, since I did not care much for the flute I just crazy glued the tenon to the joint, and never had a problem with it, you can’t even feel the seem, and I play it daily.
My first thought was epoxy the thing myself as I’ve done that before with an old flute but Ralph, if he can pull this off in time for all the gigs I have in the next week will be my personal hero. It was not a clean break and there were splinters and things. Ralph said it was just like a puzzle and after a few minutes of fooling with the pieces and a reamer he had it sort of back together which calmed me. He was cool and confident it could be done easily enough I was a wreck because the flute is the instument I play most often and with a whole slew(sp?) of gigs for St.Patrick’s dayI was miz. The whislte’s a great instument but I need power and force for the loud lewd bars we play in and on parade day for the dancers. Thank God for the melodeon. Needless to say I’ve had a grand time messing with the poor kid who busted her over the last few days. I just have to say again that Mr. Sweet’s a hell of a guy and anytime I’ve been down to his shop to talk or play old flutes I’ve had a blast.
Hello,
Ralph was able to get the flute back to playing order and it looks as good as new and in time for all of the gigs I had this last weekend. He also found some cracks that were indetctable to me. Now that he glued the cracks I find I have to blow the whole flute differently than before, the Low d takes completeley different pressure. It’s almost like playing a new flute. Anyone ever experience this? Patrick