OK, well some of you know I got a new (budget) flute for Christmas, and that I managed to partially correct (very sharp) tuning in the first octave by pulling the tenon out on the foot joint. However, this renders the second octave D dreadfully flat, and takes an already too-quiet low D and E and makes them waaayyy soft and mushy-sounding.
Since I’m much more concerned with tuning and playability than looks, I had the idea of plugging the current D and E tone holes, and re-drilling farther down the foot in order to bring those two down a half-step (yep, they’re that sharp!). Any thoughts on this from the flute makers out there?
By the way…the rest of the flute sounds great–strong and in tune, so if you count tone holes, I’m 2/3 the way to a solid player for under $40 USD!
Where is the cork positioned in your headjoint? While approximately one headjoint internal diameter away from the middle of the embouchure hole is the norm, sometimes you need to move it closer or further away.
What I’m wondering is if you should get rid of your fix for the sharp lower octave, pull the tuning slide out until the bottom notes are in tune, and then mess with the cork position until you and get the low D, middle D and high D close to in tune.
Try to enlarge the opening athe the end of the Flute, thus creating a bell, not conventional but it might work as it will platten the notes and probably add strength.
Exasperated with these pesky little oval embouchure holes makers seem to be set on supplying I made the embouchure hole on my wood flute larger by hand and it made a great difference, tone became reedier and louder. Flute is easier to play as well. I used a womans fingernail rotary electric grinder, small battery operated like a dirt cheap dremel tool, with several cutters/buffers. Took about 15 minutes.
Well–I did it. The far end of the foot joint was only about 3/8" in diameter. The more I looked at it, the more it looked wrong to me–big, thick and heavy, almost club-like. Granted that all my other flutes and fifes are cylindrical bore, still, that hole looked waaay too narrow.
So, I got out the 1/2" bit, took a deep breath, and started removing material. Some 30 minutes (and a good deal of stress later!), I had tweaked it by widening the foot joint bore up to the D tone hole. It seemed that a lot of material came out, and I kept checking to see if I had punched through the side of the foot!
The results are as follows:
It now plays in tune, straight up the board, with about 3/8" of slide into it placing it in tune with my electronic keyboard.
Louder. The entire instrument is louder, but my low D and E are MUCH improved.
The transition between the 1st and 2nd octave seems “tighter”, like I’m in control of it, instead of the flute dictating terms to me.
So, I’m pleased to report that it worked! I got a player for less than 40 clams, and this should take me far enough to get good enough to eventually move up to a better instrument (have to earn it, you know!).
I am happy to see that my idea worked, it is great that you got a cheap decent Flute after some tweaking. Maybe I should try my hand at tweaking some of these Flutes or maybe restoring the old ones that are on evil bay all the time.
It seemed that a lot of material came out, and I kept checking to see if I had punched through the side of the foot! 