OK I have one more question this is related to my piccolo pads thread, sorry if I am being redundant but ok, you can buy pads your self, and I do not see any that go past $50 how come some people pay like 500$, and even more! for a piccolo to be repadded, what exactley are they doing that is so expensive? I know you have different types of pads, or the glue that is used, but why do some professionals request you to pay like Flutist06 said $900, or more, it kind of makes no sense to me?
Once again, sorry if I am getting annoying, but I am in H.S, and I have a older gemeinhardt wooden piccolo(its so nice), pretty much the same as the 4W of today, but I am not a bank, and neither are my parents, and I sure not buying a new piccolo, when all mine needs is new pads. Thanks for all the previous responds, they are helpful.

Exactly what Alieannie said. It's the expertise that costs so much. You can get a set of pads and the materials that you need for just a fraction of th pricetag that a repad has associated with it. However, you also have to factor in overhead, such as storage space, perhaps rental for the premises, electricity, water, etc. along with defraying the costs of all the necessary tools (depending on what needs to be done, and to what instrument, the tech may have to fabricate the appropriate tool(s) from scratch). Then there's the matter of the skill that's involved. It can be quite difficult to pad an instrument in such a way that the pads seal reliably on the tops of the toneholes. There are a lot of things that can add on to the price, but as Alieannie said, in the end it comes down to quality. And if you want your flute/picc to perform as it should for any reasonable amount of time, the cost is worth it.



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Once you've paid the (sometimes significant) price for an instrument, it doesn't make much sense IMO to allow it to lapse into unplayability by cheating it on maintainance. And of course, there's always the problem that instruments in poor repair will not perform as well as they could, and could very well hold you back noticeably. If you care for your instrument properly, maintainance shouldn't be called for too often, so when it is, get it done right.

as Alieannie said, in the end it comes down to quality. And if you want your flute/picc to perform as it should for any reasonable amount of time, the cost is worth it.

Exactly.
Ditto

Repadding is an art. If everyone could do it well, it would be cheap. But it is an art, and you pay people who have this talent and worked hard to develop it.

Try it yourself on a piccolo and you will see what I mean. Just don't do it to your own picc..

I'm all for you trying it yourself. Just so you begin to realize what's involved. Then try a picc that's been repadded by a professional..

And if the instrument doesn't play well, it's worthless anyway.

Joe B

putting pad on Is hard and if they do it wrong the whole instrument will be rewind...and of course you don't want that!

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spelling error ruined sorry

flutesandpiccolos, yes, you can purchase a decent set of pads for around $50; but repadding an instrument is much more involved than just glueing the pads in. A repad on a piccolo is usually more expensive than on a flute, because on such a small instrument, any tiny imperfection will completely ruin the job. It is very meticulous and painstaking to do a decent repad, and that's multiplied for an excellent job.

The best repair tech levels and aligns the keys, then removes the keys, removes the old pads, checks the tone holes for imperfections and repairs if needed (on a wooden instrument, re-facing the tone holes is an incredibly delicate operation, and if not done well, alters the voicing and intonation), installs the new pads with the proper adhesive (you can't use Elmer's!), reinstalls the keys, seats the pads, and re-voices the keys, and replaces and adjusts any corks that need it.

You can probably find a pretty good repair shop near you, and get a repad for considerably less than $500.

"And if the instrument doesn't play well, it's worthless anyway."
How right you are Joe B.

As a matter of fact, on the professional level if the instruemnt doesn't play well, it's the player who is blamed. Generally excuses become increasingly ineffective the higher up you go on the ladder. I would recommend trying to pad an instrument BUT probably I'd do it first on some old garage sale Bundy or similar that doesn't matter much to anyone. First attempts don't always go so well and as Joe points out, padding is an art. The smaller the instrument the finer the tolerances and piccolos are pretty sensitive to the issues of bad padding.