I’ve got an old small hole ,keyless Boxwood Flute. The Flute sounds great, but when warmed up with the Tenon pulled out( no slide, the Flute plays 10 cts sharp on most notes, but as is the case with some older instrments the F# plays about 10 cts flat.
What do you think?
the sessions that I attend locally tend to tune spot on to A440
Ben
If you can’t play it in tune, then you shouldn’t play it in the session. Assuming, of course, you like these people and want them to like you.
Ben,
are you saying with the tenon out all the notes are 10 cents sharp? Or, are you saying with the tenon out the only off note is the F#? If it’s the former, I agree with Glauber, but if the only note that’s off is the F# - can you lip it up, vent the D#/Eb key or simply file the tone hole below the F# larger to bring it into tune?
Eric
I know people with UPs will place a rush in the bore to bring the overall tuning down. Do flautists do this?
djm
No. I think it has to do with the different acoustics for reed instruments. The options are to make a new head or add a barrel and slide, but this may affect the overall tuning of the flute. Surprisingly, Terry McGee has found some high pitched flutes that played very nicely in normal pitch with a new head, so it seems some flute makers went on happily making short heads to raise the pitch without scaling the rest of the flute. We know this happened with Boehm flutes too, when the pitch went from 435 to 440.
if the F# is only 10cents flat (relative to the G) then you stand a fine chance so give it a go.
He said it’s 10 cents sharp on most notes (except F# which is flat) with the tenon fully extended.
Get in touch with John Gallagher. I had an old boxwood flute that had relative tuning all over the place, and was overall very sharp (average at least A450). He re-bored it to flatten it, tweaked some of the finger holes, and it’s very good now except the E which can just about be lipped.
Practice tuning those notes with your lips/airstream then when you feel ready go to the session. 