For anyone who is looking for a wooden headjoint to fit on their silver flute, here is an unusual choice. I have one of these, only the one I have has the wood removed to form a lip plate rather than having the fat section near the embouchure hole. If you do an online search you can find the O.D. of the tenon, although I fit mine to my flute with masking tape, which works very well without having to go to the expense to have a professional resizing of the tenon. I find it a little bit humorous that the wedge is described with my name, when, of course, I had nothing to do with the design of the Fajardo wedge in this flute. ebay ad
Does anyone know the use of the plug that is in the bottom right area of the case in the ebay photo?
If you are interested in reading more about the history of this headjoint, please see this page at my website.
Doug, you seem a bit tentative, especially using the words “unusual choice”. Are you happy with yours? Does it do much to transform the sound of your metal flute? Are there affordable alternatives you would recommend? Curious minds want to know!
I don’t use my Armstrong-Fajardo headjoint much because I prefer using the Boehm silver headjoint, and since I haven’t had the opportunity to play other quality wooden headjoints made for cylindrical-bore flute bodies, it is impossible for me to say much by comparison.
One negative that I see with the long aluminum Fajardo wedge is that it collects moisture quite readily and needs to be swabbed out often for best response. On the positive side, the Armstrong-Fajardo headjoint is very-well made from what appears to be blackwood with silver rings. There are different marks on the end cap that allows you to set the angle of the wedge at different angles without needing to look inside the headjoint. In my opinion the headjoint does make the silver flute sound more woody but not as much as I would like. As I mention on my website page, the Armstrong-Fajardo headjoint was not a commercial succes, and I suspect that there was a good reason for that, but I’m not exactly sure what it was. If someone were to twist my arm in exactly the right way, I would part with mine. Sorry, Raoul, if you are still around this world to read this.
With regard to intonation of the flute using the Fajardo wedge instead of the Boehm parabolic tapered headjoint, I find that the wedge-corrected intonation is quite good. Second octave notes seem to be right on pitch, but, then again, I am blowing the notes while looking at a tuner.