A few examples of Sally's work — from a rare 1867 Rudall Carte to a school flute that had clearly been sat on.
Bought for £50 years ago and put away as it wouldn't play — now worth around £4,000. It's in beautiful condition with no cracks in the wood, and is rare in having a B footjoint, an open G#, two thumb keys to play B and Bâ™, and an open D.
It was very difficult to repair, having no adjusting screws and a mechanism completely different to the normal Boehm system. It now plays beautifully. Thank you to Kate for trusting me with such a beautiful instrument.
The G# had been turned into an open G# by soldering an arm to the G key and splitting the G keys, then soldering on an E mechanism. Sally skilfully removed the extra parts, returning the key to a closed G# and re-soldering the G keys back together. The A key was so worn it needed reinforcing, and had also snapped at the Y arm — with various other parts needing to be soldered back together. Sally also made a new headjoint ring.
After all the repairs, getting it to play again was just as challenging, as the mechanism was very complicated and needed to be exactly right. Once finished, it was taken back to Howarths of London for an exhibition.
A beautiful piccolo in need of a complete overhaul, plus weak springs that needed replacing — again, quite a complicated mechanism to adjust.
This Mateki, used professionally, is quite typical of the work Sally comes across. It came up beautifully after an overhaul it was badly in need of.
A student flute from a school, used and abused — with a big dent in the headjoint and a body bent, quite possibly from having been sat on at some point. Sally soon had it looking as good as new again.
This old Alexandre clarinet seriously needed a major overhaul, and also had a piece of the tenon broken off.
Whatever the age or condition, get in touch for a quotation.