All hail to thee ye blithe morning fluters!
I was wondering about your experiences with
playing one makers headjoint on another flute.
Theirs been plenty of examples of new heads made
for antique flutes but i’m interested in current/modern
instruments being given the switcheroo.
Thanks,
o
I have an old (1840) cocus ersatz Rudall that seems to have been made by an apprentice in the Rudall shop and shipped to the USA to Atwill’s Music Salon in NYC. I had work done on the embouchure, which much improved the sound of the flute, but I also sometimes play it with the headjoint of my Bryan Byrne Rudall, which fits well and sounds probably better still. I think I have basically a functional good sounding old Rudall.
Have you tried the Byrne headjoint
on another modern instrument?
I often put a Rudall & Rose patent head onto my Olwell as I think it sounds different and better than with the Olwell head joint.
Hi, Oleo. No, but I have put the Rudall headjoint on a Murray, which sounded great.
I’ve attempted various swaps, but mostly one maker’s HJ won’t fit well enough on other makers’ bodies for success. Various makers often use rather different sizes of tuning slide tubing, so you can’t make them fit together without either hassle or damage. That’s been my experience, but I haven’t tried all combinations, obviously, and certainly there are exceptions.
I had a Milyard in Blackwood and a boxwood Murray. The heads were totally swappable, they fit perfect. It seems that most of the tone comes from the headjoint as the flutes sounded like the headjoint I was using regardless of the body…
I tried an Olwell fully-lined hj on a Watson flute. It gave a
significantly stronger tone than the Watson unlined hj. The Olwell
had a larger embouchure opening - similar to my Reviol. Maybe
that’s why.
I tried an Olwell Nicholson head joint on a Sam Murray body. It sounded like an Olwell Nicholson, but with very poor internal tuning. Similarly, the Sam Murray head joint on the Olwell body sounded like an out-of-tune Murray.
Steveb