Chiff and Fipple Forums

Dear users, I just read your valuable comments and I want to say that I learned a lot. Many thanks.

I'm a wet player. Irish flute, baroque flute, whistle, heck even when I played the clarinet. I've been playing flute for 20 years and don't expect to outgrow it.

I pre-warm the head of whatever I'm playing. A few minutes under my arm warms it up nicely. I swab the head out after about 5 minutes of playing and after another 15. It takes about 15 seconds, and doesn't bother me at all.

If it's significantly impairing your playing, you probably want to use a very small piece of fabric to swab out the embouchure hole too. I need to do that occasionally.

Boxwood is just a little bit absorbent, but that makes a huge difference in condensate buildup. It's much worse in polymer flutes, although those are also harder to warm up.

Terry McGee wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2023 9:34 pm Pull the head from the barrel, and also remove the cap and stopper if possible.

If I'm unable to remove the cap and stopper, should I just go ahead with the instructions omitting the part about rinsing the headjoint under the tap?

Removing the stopper and cap was only to make the task of shlusshing out the bore easier. So, do the rinsing under the tap, and then dry with fresh clean rag and leave out to "air".

We tend to worry about wetting our flutes but of course we are breathing wet air into them all the time we are playing. So a minute or two under the tap followed by drying is nothing to a flute.