upgrading the head joint

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:42 pm

LOL

sounds like my place, only without the diversification.

my wife refuses to count instruments anymore to see just how many
we have.

I do have to admit to looking forward to selling my extra Bari so I can get
some of the living room back though.

brina · Post by **brina** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 4:52 pm

yes!! I have a yamaha 271 and I bought a new head joint Faulisi (Michele Debost plays on it) and it's much much better!

flutepicc06 · Post by **flutepicc06** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:09 pm

brina wrote:yes!! I have a yamaha 271 and I bought a new head joint Faulisi (Michele Debost plays on it) and it's much much better!

Upgrading the head only matters when the player is advanced enough to make use of the different musical possibilities it opens up. In this case, other uses for the money are/were probably more appropriate.

sidekicker · Post by **sidekicker** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 5:53 am

flutepicc06 wrote: Upgrading the head only matters when the player is advanced enough to make use of the different musical possibilities it opens up. In this case, other uses for the money are/were probably more appropriate.

Absolutely correct. High end heads, like high end flutes, can be more difficult to play on because they are crafted for players advanced enough to utilize the great flexibility the head joint maker builds into it. It often takes enormous control capability because they are made to have such wide dimension. If one does not know how to use that, it can have disastrous results.

An analogy I would offer is that between driving a Porsche 911 turbo and a Dodge Neon. The Porsche is going to give you amazing power compared to the much more benign Neon. A novice driver will probably drive the Neon quite well, but wreck the Porsche because it takes much more skill to handle that much power. But the payoff if you know what you are doing is awesome.

The same is true of high end hand-tooled heads (and to a similar extent, handmade flutes). If you don't have the skill to know how to use them, you are probably better off without one until you do.

Just my opinion.

SK

fluttiegurl · Post by **fluttiegurl** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:41 am

Personally, I love my Dodge Neon

Muckdogzen · Post by **Muckdogzen** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:12 pm

All I can add to all this is, if you want to drive a race car you have to get into a race car. Have to learn how to handle high performance. I always tell people to get the best instrument you can afford.

ps. fluttie I also enjoyed my neon. And was very surprised to find out professsional drivers use neons for racing along the sides of mountians in Europe.

fluttiegurl · Post by **fluttiegurl** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:05 pm

Muckdogzen,
I know! I think that is so cool

concertpianist16 · Post by **concertpianist16** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:08 am

Can you buy any head joint basically for the flute or must you have it specially fitted?

fluttiegurl · Post by **fluttiegurl** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:45 am

You can buy a different head for your flute. It may need to be fitted, but a trained tech could do that in most cases. Be sure to try out the head with your flute before buying. Seems like a "duh", but I have a student who bought a headjoint without trying it on her flute. she only tried it on the flute in the store. she was very fortunate, but not all flutes and headjoints are perfect matches.

MrBaz · Post by **MrBaz** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:23 am

I agree with everyone else. Save the money for lessons. Save a little for down the road to purchase a new flute entirely as well.