Our skilled staff have years of experience repairing every kind of instrument. Here are some common recorder problems, their solutions, and ways of preventing them.
Thumb Bushings:
It is very common for the thumbhole of a recorder to become worn after many hours of playing, especially for players who keep their thumbnails long or dig their thumbnails in when playing high notes. A bit of thumbhole wear is okay, but eventually it will make the high notes unreliable. When this happens, the area around the thumbhole is drilled away and a ring of harder material (ivory or plastic) is turned to fit exactly, sanded flush, and then individually tuned. As these bushings are made of harder material than the original, they will last much longer.
Before
| After
|  |  |
Cleaning:
Before:
|
|  | When recorders are played, they often accumulate build-up from
moisture, mold, saliva, condensation, "lip goo", and so on. In the
"before" picture below, this build-up has even partially occluded the
windway of the recorder. In addition, this instrument has a dark, oily
smudge on the surface of the labium which comes from they player
putting their finger there to blow moisture out of the instrument while
playing. In this case, there was no permanent damage to the labium,
but in some cases the combination of the oily residue and pressure from
the finger can cause the thin edge to warp. It is not generally
possible to repair it when that happens. |
After:
 Things that can't be fixed: A lucky dog got a very expensive chew toy; this head joint cannot be repaired, and must be replaced.   Excessive oiling and finger pressure (from putting the finger in the window to stop the sound when blowing out moisture) on the labium of this instrument have caused its fine edge to warp inward. This gives the recorder a very muffled and unfocused sound, and can't be corrected. |