Boundless Flute

This vintage piccolo came in for a COA, except it ended up being much more!

The owner was trying to do their best to look after this lovely instrument by oiling it, once a month.

If you’ve watched , you know that we don’t recommend that players oil their own instruments and this is exactly why. This player is extremely careful and conscientious, but they still managed to use far too much oil and wreck their pads. There’s no saving an oil-saturated pad, so it instantly turned their COA to a repad. 😢

Even without the oil problem, time had caused large grain lines to open across the rims of the toneholes, so I had to seal and repair every single one.🔬

Before anything, I had to mop up all the excess oil, clean the piccolo, and reoil it. I took the opportunity to show just how brown unoiled grenadilla is - pictures 4, 5, and 6 show a patch of the wood that hasn’t been oiled, then with oil applied, and then wiped away. Just because your piccolo isn’t super shiny doesn’t mean it needs oil. Some piccolos, especially vintage ones may naturally have more of a matte finish even when properly oiled. It’s more about the color than the shine! ✨

Now that all the toneholes are repaired, and the wood is happy, it’s time to put the ribs back on and start installing some new .flutes pads. 🙌

I’m so excited to hear this piccolo after its transformation!

Andddd this piccolo belongs to the first Boundless Flute client to book through for our new partnership! 🥳 What a way to kick things off! 😂