I just have a student flute the is seven years old and the inner tube of the foot joint is falling out. It creates this buzzing noise when I play. I showed this to my teacher and she hadnt ever seen that before. She said theat I'll have to get it reapaired which I figured but also that they will have to take the inner tube out and put it back in.


Does anyone know about how much that would cost?

I know that I would probably be better off just getting a new flute but my mom is kind of set against that unless this one is too bad.

thanks for any help
kate

What exactly do you mean by the "inner tube"? Flutes are not usually comprised of multiple tubes (i.e. an inner and an outer), but rather have a single tube, on which toneholes and mechanism are mounted. Perhaps a link to a picture, or a different description would help solve this mystery....

I mightguess that the box (tenon receiver) is unsoldered????

Possibly?

In any event soldering is generally not that major an expense. But I'm curious also...

Joe B

That's what I was thinking too, Joe, but since it's the footjoint that's at issue, wouldn't the receiver be an "outer" tube and the tenon on the body the "inner" tube?

Chris

At the very end of the foot joint theres this thin metal that is coming out from under the part where the metal gets thcker at the end (in like 2 circly things I dont knw what it is called) but this metal is coming further and further out and the sound keeps getting worse too.

(my flute is an armstrong 104)

right you are Joe

tripletoeloop: When you say the end, do you mean the end that connects to the body, or the other end? And those circly things are most likely the rings.

the end that doesnt connect to anything and yep rings are probably what I mean

Well then we know that it's not the tenon receiver....Which just makes this all the more puzzling. I don't suppose you could post a picture on photobucket or something to allow us a visual?

Probably a loose ring, like others have said. That shouldn't affect the performance though (except maybe some vibrations).

I have seen some student flutes (usually older than the one in question) where the ring was not soldered on the end of the tube but farther up, and the end left sticking out beyond the ring. Don't trim them, or the Low C will be really sharp...

If there are problems, it's most likely somewhere else, as the others have pointed out. Soldering a loose ring over there is an easy fix as Micron pointed out.

Joe B

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Would love to see a picture too... if you are able.

I took a picture of it, the picture isnt that great.



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the link didnt show up


http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g319/xbeachxlovinx/4571ea05.jpg

Are you sure the ring is loose? That looks like one of the ones that was made that way as I described in my previous posts. (they just put the ring on in the wrong place in the production line). If it's not loose (and it shouldn't be) that is not going to make your flute sound worse. You have a problem(s) somewhere else.

You can have that ring moved to the correct position for cosmetic reasons and then plated to make it look right. But this is not the cause of your flute having "problems."

Joe B

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If you are still getting a buzzing sound it could be that this ring is loose, or the upper stopper plate in the headjoint is loose, or the trill key is rattling in the stabilizer, or a loose roller, or, or, or...

I had an Armstrong 104 from 5th grade through high school. It protruded from the rings at the end like this one does, but not quite so far.

The only trouble I had with my Armstrong 104 was the low C roller, whose screw ended up stripped out and would not tighten. None of the local repair techs (very small town) were ambitious enough to try to fix this, and said that if it fell off I would probably need either a new foot joint or parts from another footjoint.

It never vibrated or buzzed, and the tuning/scale were pretty decent.

So I agree with the others: have a repair tech look at it, the ring s may be the small problem and the buzzing a problem elsewhere.

I took it in to be fixed and they said it would be about a week to fix.

I also looked for a new flute and decided on a yamaha.

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I thought about it and maybe it could have been caused by the abuse it has had during marching band???

HAHA! Or maybe used as a baton? That's what this one person did..throwing and twirling in the air..and trying to catch it..how clever.:D..