… my new McGee Rudall Refined and Jon C headjoint for my old german flute!
My fear in ordering the McGee was that it’d be so much better than my Huller that I wouldn’t want to play it anymore. Unfortunately, this proved to be true. I’ve had the McGee for nearly a month and have almost never gone anywhere without it.
After much waiting for wood to settle, two weeks ago I sent the Huller down to Jon C in LA to get a wooden headjoint made. Initially it was just for aesthetics… Then I hoped it’d bring the flute back on par with the McGee. Well, I just received it today, and I am blown away!
I had a lot of fun restoring the Huller and thought it was sounding great. The old headjoint is terrible compared to the new, though. It’s now a very solid and focused-sounding instrument… Very rich and powerful. Aesthetically speaking, his cocobolo headjoint and barrel match the body much better than the original barrel did. The old headjoint was german silver, which looked really out of place.
With its 19th century tuning and “lighter” embouchure action, the Huller has more of an old-school tone to it. It’s easy to make it chirp by huffing into it like I hear on a lot of classic recordings. It has a deep chimney and a rounded-rectangle cut embouchure. The McGee on the other hand sounds very modern to me; in tune, loud, and with an astonishingly powerful low D. It has his “eccentric bore” head and “improved elliptical” embouchure cut.
Needless to say, I am very impressed with the work of both of these makers, and would wholeheartedly recommend them. I think from now on BOTH will be going with me nearly everywhere I go 
