Rich Lupo Flutes and Piccolos

Rich Lupo Flutes and Piccolos Flute repair for students and professionals since 2003.

07/29/2026

COA's are about more than making flutes shiny... check out this awesomeness.

Flute techs love to post beautiful pictures of the solid-gold, diamond-encrusted, hand-engraved, rare and valuable flute...
06/17/2026

Flute techs love to post beautiful pictures of the solid-gold, diamond-encrusted, hand-engraved, rare and valuable flutes they work on. Yeah, I work on those too, like the 14k gold Burkart I worked on yesterday. But honestly those are some of the most well-made—and therefore easiest and most rewarding to repair—flutes I handle. What's really a challenge is this: a several-year-old Gemeinhardt 3OB in for its annual COA. A $200 COA on a flute worth less than $700 with the same professional standards as I put into yesterday's gold flute. It is immensely challenging to get a flute like this to play perfectly, making the pads seal perfectly without clamping. Getting it done quick enough to be profitable is even harder, and yes I lose money on almost all of them like this. So this is my humble brag. I will not boast about working on the best-made flutes in the world, for the best flutists in the world... Those are fun, but flute techs know—there is nothing harder than a low level student instrument like this, done to professional standards.

COA stands for Clean Oil and Adjust. I spend most time talking about the Adjustments part, which is mostly shimming pads...
05/18/2026

COA stands for Clean Oil and Adjust. I spend most time talking about the Adjustments part, which is mostly shimming pads, which is the most highly skilled part of a flute technician's work. But the C and the O are also very important, here's why. Buildup of crud and oxidation on the toneholes will make even the most perfectly shimmed pad leak. This crud can cause pads to go bad, and eat away metal from the tonehole. Its easy to clean, but the flute must be fully disassembled.

The Oil part is actually about giving the flute an oil change, the old oil either dries up, leaving a residue that must be cleaned off, or if its still wet the old oil collects dirt and microscopic metal shavings that turns the old oil into an abrasive paste that actually accelerates wear in the mechanism. So the O step in COA is complete disassembly and unpinning of the key mechanism, cleaning out the old oil, polishing off any residue, and putting in fresh new oil, but not too much oil, which can cause huge problems.

The C and the O are the parts of the COA that desperately need to be completed every 12-18 months or even sooner. They are preventative maintenance. If the A part of the COA was done extremely well last time, you may not detect anything wrong with how the flute plays, but delaying the C and O part of the COA can be actively, irreversibly damaging your flute every day.

➡️My flute repair business has a major problem. My repairs are lasting too long. My customers are waiting years before c...
05/01/2026

➡️My flute repair business has a major problem.

My repairs are lasting too long.
My customers are waiting years before calling me again for their next service appointment. The industry standard is "get your COA once a year" but my customers are reporting back "everything still plays perfectly, I'll wait a little longer." So I've started offering $100 discounts to repeat customers who've had their COA 18 months ago or less, to reward customers who understand that a COA is as much about "Preventive Maintenance" as it is about making the flute play better right now. Flutes need oil changes too!

I have developed my repair techniques based on how durable and stable the results are. Methods, materials, adhesives, all experimentally chosen over the past couple decades to create a lasting repair. But it sure makes it hard to make money when stuff stays fixed so long.

A teacher brought in this really nice intermediate flute today, student was reporting one note wasn't playing right. I did the COA on it 18 months ago. Checking it over with the mag machine, everything was basically still perfect... it just needed one adjustment screw turned. With only a $10 repair to my books, I now have the difficult task of convincing the student's parents that a COA is in their best interest, even though it plays perfectly now.

Finished a quick overhaul on this old Gemeinhardt plastic piccolo with Valentino Masters pads. They are similar to the s...
04/17/2026

Finished a quick overhaul on this old Gemeinhardt plastic piccolo with Valentino Masters pads. They are similar to the synthetic pads used on Roy Seaman Storm piccolos and Pearl piccolos, but are a little more firm and professional feeling, and are tan instead of white. When installed perfectly they seal great, feel great, and sound great. I'm much more used to overhauling professional piccolos, but on a beginner piccolo like this I can overhaul it incredibly fast, and shockingly cheap. Its fun to do these quick piccolo overhauls, and while most flute specialists dread them I really enjoy specializing in working on piccolos!

Address

Bourbonnais, IL

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

1-630-465-LUPO

Website

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