Hi all,
I just looked at Doug Tipple’s web page as I hadn’t been there for awhile.
He is now talking about a “Tipple Wedge” that Michael Eskin tried and
says is really great for adding a better sound to the 2nd octave of the
flute.
Is everyone buying one to glue into their flute???
Lolly
Hi Lolly,
I’ve got a Tipple 8 hole with the wedge but find that I prefer not to use it. Based on other feedback, I think I’m the oddball on this topic.
I have the three piece grey Tipple amd I have the fipple also.
I am a new player, having just taken up the flute for the first time, the Tipple is my only flute at this time.
I find the fipple gives the flute a woodier, (or perhaps a breathier), tone, without it, it tends to sound more like a regular flute.
I like playing both with and without it, I don’t have it glued in for that reason, I just slide it in and breath moisture holds it in place for the most part, you just tap the flute on the end to pop it out for swabbing.
It is supposed to help bring in tune the higher range notes, but I’m one of those people who is new at this so I am out of tune on the higher octaves most of the time yet so I can’t really vouch for this.
I know I like the difference in tone, it’s like having two flutes.
Before I glued it down so I wouldn’t lose it. I dropped the wedge down the bore of the only other cylindrical flute I had of about the same diameter. a bamboo Olwell. Not surprisingly, it muddied the the tone. I don’t know what if anything could improve an Olwell bamboo flute . On the other hand, the wedge turns a very nice three piece , eight hole Tipple flute into a wonderful flute that is similar to my M&E R&R . Biggest difference between the Tipple and the M&E is that the Tipple has much larger holes with the usual results.I’ve never played a Pratten style large holed flute and wonder if the Tipple has anything else in commen with Prattens? I hope my much loved small holed Aulos doesn’t find out I’ve got a large holed second love.
Bruce
Bamboo has a slight taper, and that’s why it didn’t work in the bamboo Olwell.
I think the Tipple wedge is excellent! It is SUCH a simple thing, but it improves the tuning of the upper octave enormously! I tried the Tipple flute with and without it, and with it is worlds better.
It brings up the second octave for me. I can’t play a heck of a lot yet, but it sure seems to work.
I haven’t been able to successfully glue this thing in yet.
I tried the toothpick-through-the-windway technique Doug puts forth on
his website, but I just ended up getting glue on my windway (thank goodness
I was using Elmer’s glue). Maybe I won’t bother securing it… I only wanted to
glue it because I’m afraid of loosing it, but it stays in as long as I don’t jostle it
when it’s vertical (which I tend to do when I put it down for storage).
By all means, use Elmer glue; don’t go for anything more permanent.
Here’s how i glued mine: i put the glue on the back of the wedge, and inserted the wedge in the headjoint upside down, i.e.: with the side with the glue up. I carefully tilted the headjoint so the wedge slid all the way to the cork end, but still with the glue pointing up. I had the blowhole pointing down at this point, so the wedge is at the blowhole side of the headjoint, with the glue side up.
Then i gently but quickly toppled the headjoint around (with the cork end down) like this:
== → || → ==
so the wedge fell down on the correct side, with the glue down.
After that, i used a wooden stick to push the wedge down and hold it in place for a few minutes while the glue set.
I hope this makes sense.
That made perfect sense, glauber. I was thinking of somehow putting glue on the bottom
of the wedge (instead of the side), and you solved the problem of how.
So, is the wedge best positioned directly opposite the windway, or at some angle to it?
I was going to get around to experimenting with the position of the wedge, but hadn’t
gotten around to it…
I put it directly underneath the blowhole, but i don’t think it really matters. All that matters is the gradual reduction in the air volume as you move towards the cork. This achieves the same result as Boehm’s “parabolical head” with less effort. I put it underneath because it’s easier to press it in place this way.
In the original Fajardo patent design, the metal wedge and the stopper with O-rings were one piece. This allowed you to rotate and adjust the wedge with respect to the blow hole, which Fajardo listed on his patent as a desirable feature for adjusting third octave notes, I believe. I generally place the wedge against the stopper and directly under the blow hole, although the flute will play quite well with some rotation from that postion.
Sorry about the problems with gluing. I use a large wooden dowel with a slight taper that matches the wedge to hold the wedge securely while I glue it. This way I can handle the flute without the wedge changing positions when I am gluing it. For anyone who asks me to glue the wedge in place, I use the smallest amount of super glue on the tip of a tooth pick, as I mention on my webpage.
Best wishes and happy fluting. 
I just got a wedge for my 3-piece Tipple, but haven’t had a chance to really put it through its paces yet.
Thanks for clarifying about the wedge position! I, too, was wondering if it made a difference whether or not the wedge was directly beneath the blow hole.
I don’t know if I’m coordinated enough to try Glauber’s gluing method… 
– Daryl
I have an early model one-piece Tipple – would a wedge work for that as well?
I’ve found my flute sounds a little better (maybe I’m just imagining things) with the wedge rotated a bit back towards the player…it seemed to give a clearer tone.
-Brett
it makes sense to me that rotating the wedge away from the incoming airstream would interfere least with normal airflow.
To answer Kate’s question, the presence of a wedge in the headjoint will slightly change the tuning of the flute. One-piece, non-tunable flutes will play about 20 cents flat with the wedge, although the intonation of the upper end of the second octave will be greatly improved. Of course, with tunable flutes you can adjust the flute back up to pitch by moving the headjoint in slightly. So if absolute pitch is not a big concern, for example, you are not playing with others who are on pitch, then the wedge works nicely in a one-piece, non-tunable flute, in my opinion.
I think Glauber’s gluing method should work easily. I had just never thought of doing it that way. I think that a very small drop of white glue in the center of the curved surface of the wedge should be enough to secure the wedge in place.
on my black Tipple D, the wedge rests on it’s edges, and doesn’t quite touch the side of the flute in the middle. the black pvc has a slightly smaller inner diameter than the white according to Doug, but it may be a good idea in any case to check how well the curvature of wedge and flute match at the open end before glueing.
as long as i’m here, i find the wedge to correct the pitch of the 2nd octave A & B notes quite nicely. there seems to be a small trade off on the 2nd octave G, which seems easy to overblow sharp. it needs just a bit less air with the wedge.
tonally, my impression is that the wedge gives a harder reedy sound when using a tighter embouchure. a tight embouchure without the wedge has a bit more of a hollow reediness. softer & airier blows seem not to be much different for me.
like glauber, i imagine that the wedge makes a cylindrical flute more like a tapered head Boehm flute. (it’s interesting to note that 4 players on the Wooden Flute Obsession 1 & 2 cds play Boehm style flutes, 2 silver & 2 wooden.)
/dan
By the way (i could find out, but i’m lazy), is the wedge’s Fajardo the same Fajardo who was a famous Cuban flutist?
José Antonio Fajardo
(Really, i just thought this was such a cool pic that it needed to be shown.)
So, couldn’t a one-piece non-tunable flute be made (by you, or by anyone who might attempt to make one) to accomodate a wedge, by shortening the tube enough to make it 20 cents sharper, and then drilling the finger holes?
Jessie, like Glauber, I am lazy, as well. I hardly ever sell a non-tunable flute anymore, so I haven’t gotten around to adjusting it for a wedge. I just play mine flat and be done with it.
Glauber, the wedge patent owner was Raul Fajardo, probably a physicist in a basement lab in Santa Monica, CA. But that is just a guess.