Fluteland.com Flute Message Board

If anyone is interested I found a starting place for the head joint cork placement for the piccolo. Reg Thorp, in his book The Complete Woodwind Repair Manuel, says "For the straight bore head with a tapered bore body, which is the common piccolo found in the country, start with the face of the end ...

Thank you for your response frugal flutist. I read the same line in J. James Phelan's book. Not very helpful I'm afraid. This piccolo is probably 50 years old and doesn't have its swab stick any longer. It is a relatively rare Db piccolo by The Cleveland company. It is all metal. Probably relatively...

By that I mean, how do I position a new head cork for a piccolo? I could just use the location of the old cork. But I would also like to know where it SHOULD be positioned in relation to the embouchure hole. Am I being clear?

What is the setting for a piccolo head joint cork?

Is it important to have the F# key seal tightly on flutes with split E mechanism? Flutes with an E facilitator ring don't seal at all and play just fine. The split E mechanism seems more like a sales gimmick than anything. What do you think?

Dear BeatboxFlute, Don't take this as a personal attack, please. Typical flute player. If it plays at all, it's in good shape. NOT! You should have your flute checked yearly. Pads need work to keep them sealing well IMHO. The sound degrades, and the projection deteriorates over time. You simply get ...

Thank you, Joe. THAT's the kind of response I was looking for. Thank you for the suggestions. I'll try them out. I try never to use partial shims. If a pad isn't sealing well and just giving me problems, I replace it with another new pad. That often solves the problem. I always check passive key sea...

What? No comments, no suggestions? I've been working on flutes for about 5 years now, not just students flutes but professional flutes as well, some having Straubinger pads. The better made flutes are the easiest to repair. Student flutes the hardest if you use good quality Lucien deluxe pads. I use...

Regarding flute pad shimming; obtaining a good seal on the F, F#, and Bb keys altogether when pressing just the F key can be problematic. I find on student flutes that often the Bb key winds up with a less than perfect seal to prevent it from keeping the F and F# keys from closing (with light pressu...

Well, that was simple! Thank you Jim.

Can anyone give me information on where to find pre-cut paper shims for an alto flute? Ferree's doesn't carry them. Do you know someone that does?

Thanks, Joe. The reason I started thinking about this is I have a professional flute player test play all my repaired instruments prior to giving them back to a student. I have large, very strong hands and fingers (I was a carpenter for 40yrs) and she plays with a much lighter touch. Occasionally sh...

Is there a device to measure the amount of force required to close a key? Should the pressure required be the same for all the keys? I've read it should only take about 1 1/2 oz. of pressure to seal a pad against the chimney. Some of the springs are a heavier gauge which would lead me to believe the...

I figured I'd post an update. I received the tenon expander and Gemeinhardt swedging die in the mail a couple days ago. I worked on expanding the alto flute's head joint tenon. The can-opener style tenon expander worked very well. It took me a little while to get the tension between the rollers just...

Thanks. I was considering doing just that.