I just got one of my flutes back recently from someone who was interested in it, and when I played it, it just didn’t sound right to me. I thought my embouchure was just off. But, checking my “cork placement dowel” that I keep marked with all the flutes I’ve had, I found that the cork was way out of place!
It can really make you think you’re playing badly-or the flute is bad too. Often corks move for various reasons-the cork dries out (very likely), or needs to be greased, or thread added (some flute makers, like Casey Burns uses wooden corks with thread to make a good fit), or the cork moves-or is moved by something or someone. Case in point-my Paddy Ward Delrin has a very tight fitting end cap, and when you take it off and replace it, you can hear and feel the air pressure it displaces as you put it back on. It’s possible that the cork also moves if the force of the air is sufficient. Maybe it shouldn’t be that tight.
So, just a friendly reminder-it’s not always your embouchure, or the flute that is at fault-sometimes moving the cork will “make a new man” (or woman) out of your flute, with a voice and playability to match!
My Ward Delrin is singing again! Thank you, Paddy for an amazing flute-it’s still hard for me to believe it is Delrin! I’m a Blackwood fan, but Delrin is pretty close in voice. It just shows what a good flutemaker can do with a good material when he puts the effort into it, even if no one likes to work in Delrin any more!
I regularly use a guage to check on cork placement, but the final tuning is unique. And, if it ain’t right, I move it.
Maybe the person to try your flute was then perhaps too careful to wipe the moisture out, afterwards, where perhaps overzealous use of a cleaning tool could displace a cork, however unintended. I’ve done that.
I hear you loud and clear on the cork issue. I think I posted a few months back when at the start of a session I just could barely play and then a few tunes later I couldn’t make a sound at all - the cork had fallen and was blocking the embouchure hole, but it was so unexpected it took me over 5 minutes to figure it out (even though the cork was visibly blocking the hole!).
As for delrin, PVC, whatever - I still believe a well made flute is a well made flute - provided the material is dense enough not to leak air.
That’s funny, Jayhawk. I just looked that thread up yesterday.
It moved me to ask Robert Bigio to make a stopper for me. I’m
tired of dealing with cork. Anyone want to weigh in on whether I
should get an endcap made? He says that on Boehm flutes, the new
endcap helps the sound, though he can’t figure out why. The endcap
is usually blackwood, but I’m not sure if that would look funny on
a polymer M&E. Maybe he could use Delrin instead…?
Yes, I’ve done that many times when my corks were too loose-but if a cork moves when you are swabbing a flute out, then it’s probably time to replace the cork! The Delrin cork in my Delrin Ward is fit pretty tightly, and can’t be moved easily, which is good.
fearfaoin - I wonder if you could get Robert to modify your existing end cap…then it wouldn’t be noticable.
Personally, I’m not sure his end cap, which I have read about, would make much of a difference on a wooden style flute. The stopper being more dense is likely to have more of an effect.
I know Doc Jones had a flute with the Biggio set-up (end cap and all), and I recall him saying it sounded just like the maker’s other flutes without the Biggio end cap (was it a Glenn Schultz flute, maybe?).
I remember your post about that session-kind of hard to blow like that with the cork there! I think we forget sometimes how loose corks can get, so it’s a good thing to check them regularly, and fix the fit, or replace the cork when it needs it. Otherwise it can drive you a little crazy trying to figure out where the problem lies-flute or player.
Yes, I agree-a good flute is a good flute, material is secondary-but it’s nice to have the choices we do.
What about the perfect cork material? It seems cork would be, since it is compressable, except some use wood, others use Delrin or other plastics. Practically, I imagine it doesn’t matter all that much, as long as it is fitted well?
That’s a good question. I’ve only ever used cork (I like the way you obtain a nice, fresh cork . Let’s be honest, go to the hardware store to buy a wooden dowel, order a cork/stopper on the internet, or drink a bottle of nice wine…seems like there is only one good option to me). However, I have tried the dime glued to the cork trick, and that does seem to make a difference in sound to me. My guess is, and where’s Jack when you need him, that the ability to reflect soundwaves is impacted by the material.
as far as i know mine’s ok… but i dont know where ok is! so i just took my silver flute’s cleaning rod and took a knife to it, marking the cork position of my wooden flute according to the embouchure hole and the headjoint length.
thanks for the idea! it’ll save me a lot of trouble in the future.
I have 170 year old flutes that still have what looks like the original cork!
I think I will stick with cork, as I just bought 300 new corks!!! (anyone need a cork?) I found out there is different grades of corks. You find this out when you cut into them, the good ones are solid, the bad sons are cracked inside. The thing I didn’t like about using a hard stopper in a wooden head joint, that is unlined, it doesn’t give much when the wood expands, and seems like it may potentially crack the head.
I usually place the cork, so the A,B first and second octave are intune. The Prattens can be as much as 21mm from the center of the emb hole, R&R are usually 19mm.
Yes, Jon, that’s what I was thinking too, and why I asked-cork seems ideal, and the harder stoppers would seem to be potentially a problem under certain conditions-as you said-and might potentially crack the head. But some other flute makers don’t obviously see it as a problem. I wonder why?
maybe because most heads are still lined? jon mentioned something about unlined heads having this (potential) problem.
why exactly would this make a difference on the wooden heads?
just curious
Hi,
The unlined head may shrink and the solid stopper would put pressure on the wood. I guess if you had thik cork or thread around the wood, that may give it some wiggle room.
I have a Fajardo-Armstrong headjoint that is make from blackwood. The stopper and internal wedge are machined from aluminum, and there are two rubber O-rings on both ends of the stopper. To prevent cracking of the headjoint due to the internal compression of the rubber O-rings, a metal sleeve has been fitted into the end of the headjoint, whereas most of the headjoint is unlined. This seems like a good idea.
. Let’s be honest, go to the hardware store to buy a wooden dowel, order a cork/stopper on the internet, or drink a bottle of nice wine…seems like there is only one good option to me). However, I have tried the dime glued to the cork trick, and that does seem to make a difference in sound to me. My guess is, and where’s Jack when you need him, that the ability to reflect soundwaves is impacted by the material.
The thing I didn’t like about using a hard stopper in a wooden head joint, that is unlined, it doesn’t give much when the wood expands, and seems like it may potentially crack the head.