Headjoint cork question...

gerardo1000 · Post by **gerardo1000** » Fri May 15, 2009 10:36 pm

Well... the genius who was working at the counter in the (very famous) store where I bought my new Yamaha 211 silver plated flute, insisted to show me how to move the cork inside the headjoint in order to get the perfect intonation. He took the plastic cleaning rod and forced it inside the headjoint
in order to move the cork. As a result, he scratched visibly the silver plating on the round plate that covers the end of the cork inside the head joint. Later, while reading the Yamaha care manual, they suggest to put a cotton fabric around the cleaning rod when using it to move the cork, precisely in order not to damage the silver plate. My question is: this is an area that gets a lot of wet... will the plate that covers the cork become rusty in the future ?
Should I insist that it is replaced ? Or is it just a few scratches with no problem ? Thank you for your opinion.

fluteguy18 · Post by **fluteguy18** » Sat May 16, 2009 12:12 am

The scratches are not a big deal. They won't rust. Secondly, even though the manual says so, NEVER move/adjust your cork by pushing with the cleaning rod. Use the groove at the end of it to determine the placement of it. If the cork needs to move away from the lipplate, twist the crown tighter. It will pull the cork away from the lip plate. If it needs to get closer to the lip plate, unscrew the crown a little bit, then push it straight in. It should be difficult to move the cork [but not impossible]. It just needs to be snugly fitted so that no air leaks.

If you use the cleaning rod, you run the risk of damaging something [the flute, or yourself] because not only can the rod itself cause damage, but if it were to break, that too would cause damage. Then you would have to buy another cleaning rod.