Hi guys, you may have seen the photos… my Fentum 78 Strand London has a full lip plate in silver. Just wondering how you guys find lip plates, do you have any opinions on lip plates, or do you feel any difference in the playing compared to wood? What I like about the lip plate: it’s pretty, and it has kept the embouchure from splitting over the 150 years or so of its existence.
A penny whistle for your thoughts.
very good to have if you’ve an allergy to the wood used (and not to the plate)
Bingo. They’re not for looks. Fortunately I don’t have a silver allergy, too.
My lip plate only covers the area that my face touches; it doesn’t affect playability. I’ve seen old flutes that have a wide silver band completely around the head so that the embouchure goes thru it; I’ve never played one, so I can’t say how that setup changes things, if at all.
My Fentum has a silver band all the way around and has kept the embouchure nice and clean. I know that allergies to cocus wood were in part responsable for this invention, but I wonder if anyone has found any sound difference - I know thta’s a tough one, but any answers? A have pictures of a number of Rudalls (not mine) with full lip plates.
I like it on my R&R, at the very begining I was more like “I don’t like it”, but now I find it nice and useful.
and it kept the embouchure from CHANGES over the 150 years or so
(unforunately splits are always possible…).
I like to play no-lip plate flutes as well, but I like it anyway!
Well at least you know that this is the same edge the maker put on the embouchure, versus a worn edge on the wood.
I don’t know why, but all I could think of when I saw the title was this:
Which I think would make it very difficult to play.
drummer in’he
I have heard it suggested that metal in or around the embouchre has a negative effect on tone. Some say it adds raspiness. I don’t hear it myself. I have two flutes one with a band and one with a lip plate. Both sound great. I am going for a bit of rasp but have to work to get it. Both flutes can be played really sweetly as well with a softer approach. I don’t believe the negative side but than again all flutes have a unique voice.
That’s actually the crap bodhran player that wouldn’t take the hints to pack it up.
Never ask "So what are ya gonna do about it!?!
As Popeye would say, that’s a wumming.
She does look like she’s adopted a very idiosyncratic way of carrying a drum, though, doesn’t she.
Now you’re all being silly billies. I asked a serious question. Just joking, great photo, nice one about the bodhran!
But seriously… I notice a lot of Rudalls from the early Tavistock and Piazza years (1830s) have lip plates, and I wonder did they already know about allergies to cocuswood then or was the lip plate put there for more practical purposes like the protection of the embouchure from cracking? Some Boxwood Rudalls have them too, and I don’t know about any allergies to boxwood. It was a relatively new idea to have a metal lip plate on the wooden flute, foreshadowing the Boehm metal flutes to come…
I’m reasonably sure that contact allergy became known not long after exotic hardwoods came to be used, and I imagine someone eventually put two and two together and figured that a metal band, rather than just a contact plate such as I have, could serve a number of issues: contact alleviation, possible structural shoring, and preservation of the blowing edge. Those at least come immediately to mind. It makes that kind of sense to me, anyway. So I find it no stretch to imagine that someone would see the same general beneficially-intended purposes of the band as applying just as well to boxwood even if allergy is typically not an issue.
The only one with such a band that I know if in my area was blackwood. I seem to recall it was of German make, and its tone was not good. But that may have been due to the player; I never tried it myself (not that I’d be any better a hotshot at it).
You’ll notice that in this aspect of the discussion I’m keeping my terminologies distinct: plate, and band. When I had my flute made I specified that I wanted the lip plate (which, according to my definition of the word as regards wood flutes, doesn’t encompass the head as does a band). My maker mentioned in passing that in that case I probably shouldn’t get a blowing-edge insert (which I wouldn’t have gone for anyway) as the more such bells and whistles you attach, the more you compromise the structural integrity of the headjoint. A band on the other hand could cover those issues, at least in theory, I’m guessing. I never did ask him if he offered the band as an option, nor what his opinion of them was.
The people saying that metal in or around the the embouchure has a negative effect on the tone may be talking about experience of flutes with metal lip plates or bands - or metal liners in the bore, which have been damaged at some point in the past, leaving the metal plate/band/liner out of alignment with the wood in the head-joint. If subsequent repairs carried out don’t put this (not always obvious) misalignment right, there will be a discontinuity, or a “step” in the walls of the embouchure hole - a known source of “raspiness” in the tone. It’s not uncommon to find this problem with old wooden flutes with metal liners, that haven’t been cared for and that have a crack or two in the head, for example.
Garry