I’ve been told and figured out by experience with different flutes that the purity and “accuracy” of a flute’s tone depends heavily on the integrity and continuity of the stopper - ie, the smoother it is, the cleaner the response.
Anyway, I’ve noticed that numerous top line makers - eg Grinter, Olwell, Healy - are taking measures to improve on the old wine cork job: Grinter and Olwell fix metal plates to the inner surface of their corks, Healy does away with the cork entirely (don’t ask me how he figured that one out…), and on a repair job he did for me he replaced the cork in my flute with a delrin plug.
So, anyone else out there know of other makers who are taking such steps? Also, can you think of any makers who would be up for doing such a retrofit to an existing flute - say changing out the current set up on my Lehart with one with a metal plate job?
I don’t think you need to resort to sending your flute to a maker, Jamey. All you’d need to do is measure the distance from the cork to the embouchure hole, take out the cork, face it with metal, and then put it back in such that the metal facing is the correct distance from the embouchure.
That said, I had Terry do it on a Cotter flute a few years ago. He did a wonderful job, but it did mean sending the thing halfway around the world. Which I was willing to do, mind you, to have his then-mark-3 tuning slide installed.
Skip didn’t do away with the cork, he “just” incorporates it in the stopper. For the length of the overall flute, then, the embouchure of Skip’s flutes seem closer to the top end of the instrument.
Kinda like the first time I saw a bamboo flute which uses the node as a stopped (as they nearly always do). Duh! The embouchure is quite close to the end.
This is a fairly straightforward upgrade. I think you’ll discover that a U.S. dime fits perfectly into the bore of your headjoint. Take out your cork and smear a little weldwood contact cement [a product as indispensible as ductape and baling wire] on the cork and the dime, let dry for 15 minutes and join the pieces together. Believe me you don’t need a flute maker/repair person to do this for you. If you want something fancy, use a pre-1964 silver dime.
Okay, so now we have some idea what Shoner’s flute looks like:
Dime stuck to the stopper, duct tape on the tenons in place of cork or thread, and then bailing wrapped around the flute to handle the cracks and deal with any errant keys - sweet!
Well, the RAF came and went. Nice flute, cool design with the eccentric bore and stopper adjusting cap…the flute certainly had it’s charms. However, it stuck me the same way Burke Low Whistles do: Well made, and in tune, but lacking a certain personality of tone that I prefer - something the Olwell Pratten has in spades.
I really wanted to be taken with the McGee, because I’d like to get a keyed flute, and waiting 5-6 years for an Olwell is a long term goal, but in the end, while I liked the McGee RAF, I didn’t like it enough to want to pay a lot of money and wait 2 years for a keyed McGee. Who knows, perhaps I would have felt different if the RAF were a McGee Pratten, rather than a Rudall type…but somehow I doubt it. I actully dug the “Rudallness” about the RAF - meaning how crisply the ornaments sound, and the thinner lighter body. But still, I found the tone a bit…bland. Hard to describe really.
Anyway, that’s just me, others will most certainly disagree, which is as it should be, other wise we’d all be playing the same brand of flute, and how boring would that be?
Loren
[ This Message was edited by: Loren on 2002-10-15 09:57 ]
Here’s a link to someone already making replacement stoppers… it’s about half way down the page. Seems like I’ve talked to someone with it in their flute and they liked it, but I can’t remember now if that’s true or if I’m imagining it. (?)
On 2002-10-16 00:59, ErikT wrote:
Here’s a link to someone already making replacement stoppers… it’s about half way down the page. Seems like I’ve talked to someone with it in their flute and they liked it, but I can’t remember now if that’s true or if I’m imagining it. (?)
Erik,
It was probably me. Mark Hoza uses delrin stoppers based on the Bigio design on all his flutes. He can make them for any flute. You would just have to send him a measurement of headjoint diameter. If you like a bright flute sound, then this is not for you. It makes the flute play a little darker and woodier, if that makes any sense.And no need to worry about the cork drying out and falling off. The O ring would probably wear out eventually, but that would be a long long time. On my Boehm flute, it sure improved responce. But I’m sure it won’t turn a bad flute into a good flute.
Bigio may very well be making delrin corks, but the crown/stopper isn’t what you’re talking about. Those things on the webpage are the thing which goes into the end of the headjoint above the cork, NOT the combined thing Skip Healy makes.
I could be wrong, but they’re nowhere near long enough to function as the cork in any iteration of the Rudall design.
–quote–
If I remember correctly, the stopper gets shoved into the flute to the proper depth and the topper is just decoration… two separate pieces. Tots?
–enquote–
I tend to agree, but there does seem to be a large following who think otherwise, especially those who play high-end Boehm system flutes.
I always figured the difference is largely a matter of you expect the flute to play better, so it does.
Yep, I agree wholeheartedly about the McGee RAF and Burke whistles. Great sensitivity of ornaments and responsiveness, low breath requirements, but the tone was just a bit thin, bland as you say.
That’s what I understand of why some people really like Grinter flutes. they don’t have the volume that others have, but the tone is remarkable and just feels right. The Noy contemporary flute though seems to have the higher volume in a lighter instrument and a very nice tone. He has the contemporary embouchure which is much bigger than any Rudall embouchure, so you can get the volume without sacrificing as much responsiveness or tone.
Yeah, the Grinter I played was very sweet sounding G., lots of character. I want to take another crack at that flute now that I’ve been at the Pratten a while and my embouchure is more focused - to see what sort of tone and volume I can get out of it at this stage in my (still lame) playing. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem getting my hands on the Grinter since I could barely pry my Olwell out of the owner’s hands the last time I ran into him at a session, LOL!
I’d love to try one of Noy’s flutes, they look beautiful. Not likely I’m going to run across one here in the wastelands though…
On 2002-10-16 16:16, ErikT wrote:
If I remember correctly, the stopper gets shoved into the flute to the proper depth and the topper is just decoration… two separate pieces. Tots?
Yes. The delrin stopper goes where the cork supposed to be and the crown(wooden)serves as the end plug. The crown has a little hole which Bigio says creates a resonating chamber between stopper and crown.
