My daughter has been playing the flute now for 2 years. I bought her an Armstrong 104. Just recently while at school a kid fell on her flute. Bent it in half, literally right in the middle. The school took it to the music shop. Cost to fix was $150, but with the added disclaimer that they could NEVER bend the keys back perfectly straight and the flute would never play true again.

So the school is trying to piece together older flutes they have with her non-bent parts to make a "whole" flute again. They are going to be using the same model of flute.

Is this ok? Will the flute play well, or is that frowned upon? Thanks

Dpends on the tech working on it If it was my technician its a doable fix

Good luck


You should have them replace it with a comparable flute

Doug

You may think about this flute exactly as if it was a car. When you have a car accident, maybe you have it working again, but it will never be like a new one, depending on how serious the hit was.
The flute in question might play again, but it will never be the same, for sure. Let your daughter practice some more months with this instrument (maybe it's good to take it to a more experienced technician to a complete revision first) and consider buying her a new one.
Unfortunately, those are precision instruments and very delicate as well.

Was the flute on the floor or something? I only ask because you said a kid fell on it. If it was being held or on her lap like it should be when not being played, then he must have done some trip! You could have it fixed, but I agree with the others, it will never be the same again. This is why it is so important to educate all flutists on the ever proper procedure to take when caring for your flute. It will prevent costly repairs such as this. Personally, if possibly money wise, I would try to get her a nice second hand refurbished Yamaha. You can find them from sellers that have them ready to play condition and just about like new instead of paying the $800 for a new one. I also like Jupiters a lot. I would advise to stay away from any Gemeinhardts, Armstrongs, Artley, or any of the Chinese made off brand flutes being sold on ebay. Good luck!

"Was the flute on the floor or something? I only ask because you said a kid fell on it. If it was being held or on her lap like it should be when not being played, then he must have done some trip!"

She put it under her chair on her books while she went to turn in some papers. Dumb.. I KNOW. She in her mind thought it was a safe place (under the chair out of the walkway). Can't walk with the instruments (some kid just fell and damaged his instrument, although the school advocated that she carry her instrument with her when she moved around the room). I told her to put the darn thing back in the case, because even if the kid broke the case the likelihood of the flute being damaged in addition would be highly unlikely. A case is cheap.. a flute not so much.

The kids behind her started to mess around. One kid pushed the other kids chair forward really hard. The kid flew out of his chair, hit my daughters chair. PUshed it forward (hitting the kid in front of her). In the process he hit the kids sitting next to her chair (bruised pretty badly). Not only damaged my daughters flute, but the case, her music books, and broke her practice CD in half.

So all three parents (the kid who pushed, the kid who fell, and myself) have agreed to pay equally to get the flute repaired/replaced.

I just wanted to know what the best route would be to replace, repair or piece it back together. Thanks..

I'm not a pro or a teacher, but for my 2 cents, it's hard enough trying to sound good and in tune with a good flute, never mind one that is out of true. Give her a break and get her a nice used flute. I see Gemeinhardts that are probably as good as the Armstrong on sale for $300. I have a solid silver one I would probably sell that with a $150 overhaul/pad job would sound as good as a $1000 flute according to my repair tech. I play a semi-pro flute now.

Without seeing the damage, it's diffcult to make a recommendation. Can you post some good, clear/in-focus, closeup photos of the entire flute and especially of the damaged area? Post them on one of the free photo sharing sites and then put links here so that we can help you decide.

Bent flutes can be straightened and put back in good playing condition as long as the repair tech has the proper equipment/training and the owner is willing to pay for the time/parts to do the repairs. The question is really whether it is worth it or not. Someone else likened this to car repair and that's actually a good analogy. If the estimated repair costs equal or exceed the value of the instrument, then it's best to "total it" and replace it.

Rebuilding one flute out of two would require they be virtually identical and set up identically to start with. If they are close, a tech could make it work. Different manufacturers, models, or even manufacturing differences could make it impossible.

If the repair proves too expensive or the expected result not playable, one option might be to look for a used flute and count on spending some money getting it professionally serviced. I would check with a local music shop which offers rentals to see if they have any used instruments to offer.