I bought my new flute 2 weeks ago and the pads are already very sticky. I clean it everytime I use it and i dont know what to do. I dont have any pad paper and no dollar bills. Any other suggestions to remove stickiness? Any suggestions to prevernt stickiness?

Thank You!

Anything you eat and drink before hand does leave some residue in your flute. I try to rinse out my mouth before playing if I`m out and about.

I`ve been quilty of sipping diet cokes while practicing though... if stickyness does develop and plain tissue paper doesn`t solve it I add baby powder to the tissue and then use plain tissue after that and it gets rid of any stubborn stickyness.

My band director taught me this trick for my piccolo. He said to take a ONE dollar bill and swipe it under the keys. It will take the stickyness RIGHT off. Trust me.

O sorry. I didn`t see the rest of the post. lol

"My band director taught me this trick for my piccolo. He said to take a ONE dollar bill and swipe it under the keys. It will take the stickyness RIGHT off. Trust me."

NO! Do not do that! That is one of the worst piece of advise you could give. NEVER use a dollar bill.
Band directors should be shot!!!!

No, piccguy... I trust neither you your your band director. That is a sure way of wrecking flute pads.

Dollar bills (In USA, but not in my country, where they are made from plastic) are quite abrasive, like fine sand paper. They ARE suitable for saxophones pads, which are leather covered, and where the stickiness is caused by a corrosion build-up of the brass tone hole edge. However, as KC says, they are totally unsuitable on the FAR more delicate `sausage skin` covering of flute pads.

If you use talcum powder, rub it into the tissue paper, and then shake off all excess before using it. Any talcum powder on the mechanism encourages corrosion.

Miranda, some flute pads are of a much poorer quality than others, and could have sticking problems intermittently until they are replaced.

What brand of flute is it?

One should stick tissue/paper under a key press down and release a few times and take out the tissue with the key open. DO NOT CLOSE THE KEY ON TISSUE AND PULL OUT WITH THE KEY CLOSED. You will get rid of stickiness, but can also tear up your pads.

Is talcum and baby powder the same thing?

Yes, basically.
Talc is a soft, off-white, slippery rock (hydrated magnesium silicate).

Engineers used to use sticks of it to mark steel, before the days of markers.

I used to work in a factory that made cosmetics. To make talcum powder they ground the purified and whitened talc extremely fine, and added certain other ingredients such as an oil, and perfume.

What the oil (containing the perfume)do to pads is anybody`s guess, which is why people suggest using odourless talcum powder. Talcum powder for babies is likely to have less additives.

On pads I either use Yamaha powder papers, which are wonderfully strong yet soft to accept the contours of a pad, or rub microfine TEFLON powder into tissue paper.

Teflon does not have the abrasive properties of talc. One source is:

http://www.spurlocktools.com/id39.htm

Health news today... Oi!

Teflon Cancer Risks Downplayed
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=534&e=3&u=/ap/20050629/ap_on_he_me/epa_teflon

That article is about a chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). What we know as `Teflon` is poly-tetra-fluoro-ethylene (PTFE), which si a very different substance.

PFOA is used in the PRODUCTION of PTFE. It has no more relationship with PTFE than the caustic soda used to make soap, or the hydrochloric acid used in a school lab to make common salt.

There are many, many dangerous chemicals which are used to make stuff that is perfectly safe. In modern times, industries usually take precautions with such known substances.

This news item does NOT imply that Teflon itself is dangerous.

Of course, future studies may eventually find Teflon itself to be more dangerous than we understand it to be at present. But that seems to apply to almost everything in our lives, including most of the food we eat, for example many ordinary vegetables which contain carcinogens. Fortunately, in a balanced diet, we also consume material that helps to deal with carcinogens.

my flute is a muramatsu. our baby powder is scented. will this make a difference??

i know i could use powder paper bought from the store. my problem is im stuck inside my house. the closest music store is miles away. im annoyed by the "kissing" sound i hear when im playing and i want a quick and efficient way of removing the sticky-ness. i never eat before i play and the only stuff i drink anyway is water, so i dont understand. hm. oh well. any other suggestions, please let me know! thanks

Play in a warm, dry environment.

If the powder is scented, then it almost certainly has significant oil in it.

Many oils go rancid in time and stink. Also, many oils `polymerise` to become sticky, like half-set varnish. Have you noticed the sticky shelf under the cooking oil container in your pantry? BTW if oil polymerises on the surface of a pad, it is practically impossible to remove it without damaging pads.

If I were you I would avoid scented talc.

thought so.
when i take it in for engraving i`ll have them take a look at the pad problem and ask them what to do.


thank you!

i read in this book that this girl used cigaretter paper
never used it myself though