My son's flute needs a new set of pads as well as adjusting and so on, and I was wondering who does the best work without charging a fortune? All of the shops that I know of in the area seem to be extremely unhelpful (no firm prices or what the person does/specializes in) and their "instrument repair person" is basically someone (can't ever seem to get a name from any of them) who they have come in for a couple of hours a day, a couple of times a week. Basically they hire the person as an independent contractor and everything is "you'll have to talk to him". Yet they can't tell me when he's going to be in?

I can't get a name, I can't get a time, I can't get a price, and I can't leave it, either, as I can't get any idea of a completion date aside from "a month or two, maybe. It depends on how busy he is".

Not terribly inspiring to say the least. You'd figure that there would be a person somewhere in the entirety of Southern California who does this sort of thing full-time and isn't sketchy. Or at least a shop that handles repairs in a professional and up-front manner. All instruments need repairs from time to time, so why is it impossible to actually get the work done?

One last thing - why isn't there a list someplace on this site? Or is there one and I missed it somehow?

Try this guy, he comes well regarded and is Straubinger certified too.

Paul Rabinov, Flute Services – Expert repair for the accomplished player. Straubinger certified technician. La Crescenta, CA 818.249.1659: rabinov@earthlink.net

<Added>

Old email address, I think this is a newer one (from the Straubinger website)

Paul Rabinov
4868 Sunset Ave.
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tel: (818) 249-1659
Email: prabinov@sbcglobal.net

Awesome. I'll try to locate him and maybe he can fit me into his schedule.

My son's flute needs a new set of pads as well as adjusting and so on, and I was wondering who does the best work without charging a fortune? All of the shops that I know of in the area seem to be extremely unhelpful (no firm prices or what the person does/specializes in) and their "instrument repair person" is basically someone (can't ever seem to get a name from any of them) who they have come in for a couple of hours a day, a couple of times a week. Basically they hire the person as an independent contractor and everything is "you'll have to talk to him". Yet they can't tell me when he's going to be in?

This is actually typical and problematic in your situation. Most music stores don't have the amount of repairs to have a live-in repair person. So, the independent repair tech. visits several stores and even will sometimes come to school bands to collect or drop off instruments. Because they are very busy and they work things on their own schedules it's not as efficient from their standpoint to come into a store at set times to chat with customers. Also, from their perspective all customers will generally want a quick turnaround and inexpensive repairs.

I can't get a name, I can't get a time, I can't get a price, and I can't leave it, either, as I can't get any idea of a completion date aside from "a month or two, maybe. It depends on how busy he is".

I'm surprised that they don't give out the name. Most stores try to show a pride in who is doing their repair work.

Not terribly inspiring to say the least. You'd figure that there would be a person somewhere in the entirety of Southern California who does this sort of thing full-time and isn't sketchy. Or at least a shop that handles repairs in a professional and up-front manner. All instruments need repairs from time to time, so why is it impossible to actually get the work done?

Good repair techs are very busy as I outlined above. I'm not from South. Calif area. What is don e here is similar. The only difference is that you tag the instrument with what seems to neeed fixing and then include contact info. But getting it done quickly means getting it into the repair person's hands ASAP.

One last thing - why isn't there a list someplace on this site? Or is there one and I missed it somehow?

There are many repair technicians around the globe. There is no master list as far as I know and most repair techs will be more or less trained in repairs of most all sorts of band/orchestral instruments. It may be easier to find a list of technicians that are flute-specific. This may ensure that the flute will be fixed more properly but those technicians are often associated with upper grade instruments and repairs. On those upper grade flutes, a complete overhaul will easily cost more than the purchase of a brand new beginner model flute and having a properly done overhaul that wont' be needing any follow-up shortly after is very important to the pro musician.