cflutist wrote:I read in Flute Talk magazine that the weight of a crown does influence tone production. Can someone elaborate on that?
Last night at orchestra rehearsal I noticed that the crowns on two 14K HJs (Brannen and Powell) that the second flutist was trying out were not as deep as the crown on my 14K Williams HJ. I guess he's itching to get a new flute and/or HJ since I got a new flute. But I really like the dark tone he gets on his Powell right now.
If you're talking about "tone production" then that's probably totally untrue. If you're talking about "tone" then I'm just skeptical about it. (Tone production is mostly only dependent from stopper down, tone refers to the sound itself.) Heehee sometimes being too specific with my words can be a problem, especially essay writing.
And when you say different sounds, do you mean that different sounds on different headjoints, the same crown in different headjoints, or different crowns on the same headjoint?
I can only think of three things that a crown may affect tone: psychological, dampening, resonance. The psychological part's obvious, nothing much to say. For dampening, I suppose a heavier crown will dampen the higher frequencies, but I honestly don't see how that has an appreciable effect since virtually all the sound is radiated from the tone holes and the embouchure hole. The same goes for resonance, which I mean that different crowns will leave different size spaces between the stopper and the crown itself.
PP, about the stoppers, from the page you posted, "The results given below are those discernible to the player as distinct from the listener. The tests were carried out on a silver flute but occasionally a brighter head piece was used. The effect of the stopper varies with the head used." I think that statement essentially nullifies the whole experiment. What a waste! And not just that, "However, two experienced players using another piccolo did not confirm this advantage while a third player playing on another instrument did, so the position is unclear." seems to say that the experiment was a failure and "You will hear sounds from your instrument that you have not heard before." makes it sound so dramatic that it's hard to believe what he's saying is true.
But I think the big difference is that the stoppers had O-rings rather than corks.
ANYWAY, relevant to the original post, I think it would have been nicer if you could make a BIG sunflower. And perhaps add leaves? As for the butterfly, I think it looks "cute" =P I suppose that's for one of the ladies? I was thinking whether the owner would mind about symmetry
I know I would.
Actually I think a totally plain crown; like TOTALLY PLAIN, no engravings or anything whatsoever, would look pretty cool. (FYI, I am not a minimalist.)
The flute family: probing the lower limit of human hearing and the upper limit of human tolerance.
) 
Although I have an amber crown on mine, I really like your work -- not only original, but also great looking.
