I'm new to this Forum, having just joined this evening, after reading a number of message threads over the last week. Briolette, I hope you are feeling better after the loss of your Dad. My own Dad died of cancer too, about 12 years ago.briolette wrote: ***
The foot joint issue is still unresolved at this point.
unfortunate the foot joint is so consistenly faulty on this instrument and others.
I've been reading this thread with a lot of interest as I've become interested in wooden flutes but have a very low budget and bought a vintage wooden flute very cheap about two months ago. I'm wondering what happened in the end with the various wooden Orpheus flutes that were mentioned here - the thread fizzles out a few months back.
I don't know whether I can offer any hints of my own based on my experience with my old wooden flute, but I suppose it's possible. The instrument was made between 1890 and 1910 (I found this out as there is an identical one in a museum in Australia which I tracked down on the web). It is made of cocus wood, Boehm system with in line G. It seems the flutes were made in France but sold in England by Montague Bros. The instrument is high pitch as was usual with English flutes of the time (i.e. A=452). I paid £250 for it (about $400).
When I tried it out in the shop, it was obvious there were leaks, etc and low D, C sharp and C were almost impossible and the low register generally was weak but also it was obvious there wasn't anything seriously wrong with the mechanism, and unusually for such an old wooden flute, there were no cracks and it wasn't warped. I had the flute regulated a week or so ago - there was a problem with the low C sharp key axle and there were some leaking pads that were reseated. After that was done, the flute sounded a lot better and the low notes were stronger but still not ideal.
Anyway, after some experimenting on my own I found out that there was still another problem - the foot tenon was not sealing properly. It was very slightly wobbly, so I wrapped a couple of gummed cigarette papers around the cork and there was an immediate improvement in low C, Csharp and D, as well as the low register in general. So the next job is to replace the cork on the foot joint tenon, which I think I can do myself.
I was just wondering if this also was the problem with those Orpheus flutes? If it was only the foot joint notes that were the problem, but otherwise the low register was fine, then either or both the pads of the footjoint notes weren't sealing properly or the tenon was loose. I think from what I can remember, it was thought that there could be a problem with the footjoint pads or even the keywork, but could the problem be more straightforward, i.e. just a loose footjoint tenon?
Kind regards, T.