About that head cork. . .

[Kirk B]

Not only are Boehm stoppers faced with metal but they're also concave in shape creating somewhat of a bullet shape in the interior of the head joint.

[an seanduine]

Denny wrote:

put down the shovel and back slowly away from the hole...

yer gettin' inta some dark arts now...

Should I worry if my flute came with a five point star inscribed on the head-joint end cap?

Bob

[Rob Sharer]

Not only are Boehm stoppers faced with metal but they're also concave in shape creating somewhat of a bullet shape in the interior of the head joint.

That's a cartridge, not a bullet.

Haha! I have achieved internet pedantry!

...what do I win?




Rob

[an seanduine]

Just remember: A bullet has no friends when it leaves the end of yer bore. . . .

Bob

[Denny]

put down the shovel and back slowly away from the hole...

yer gettin' inta some dark arts now...

Should I worry if my flute came with a five point star inscribed on the head-joint end cap?

Bob

I'd think that you could carefully consider the genres that ya play

[Denny]

Not only are Boehm stoppers faced with metal but they're also concave in shape creating somewhat of a bullet shape in the interior of the head joint.

That's a cartridge, not a bullet.

Haha! I have achieved internet pedantry!

...what do I win?




Rob

win? what do you win? after screwing up a "Silver Flute with a Bullet" line?

Shirley!

[Kirk B]

Not only are Boehm stoppers faced with metal but they're also concave in shape creating somewhat of a bullet shape in the interior of the head joint.

That's a cartridge, not a bullet.

Haha! I have achieved internet pedantry!

...what do I win?




Rob

The whole thing is a cartridge but the part that aligns with the stopper is the bullet. You were supposed to know what I meant. Can't you read my mind!?

[Doug_Tipple]

Here are my comments, but unfortunately they fall into the category, "For What It's Worth". If you want your flute to sound like a Boehm flute, with a loud, pure, bright sound, then go ahead and make your tuning cork surface smooth, perhaps slightly concave. However, if you are looking for a different, darker, more "dirty" sound, then you're going to need a little more texture on the sucker resulting in some turbulence in the headjoint.

I have demonstrated to my satisfaction that a Tipple-Fajardo wedge in the headjoint, under the embouchure hole and touching the cork face, besides correcting intonation issues of a cylindrical-bore flute, also adds complexity to the tone of the flute. Although I haven't researched this, I'm guessing that some texture to the tuning cork surface may accomplish the same objective. I cut tuning corks from wine corks with a small jeweler's saw. I sand the surface with a sanding paddle, leaving medium texture to the cork surface.

The above being said, I think that the tone of the flute is largely dependent on many other factors rather than the surface of the tuning cork, and the player's personal embouchure is at the top of the list.

[Cubitt]

As one poster suggested, I have taken matters into my own hands and superglued a dime to the head cork, with the tails end facing the embouchure. I had the ability to flip the cork if I did not like the result, which would place me back where I started, no damage done.

I wanted to give it some time before reporting back to compensate for any placebo effect and the fact that some days I just sound a lot better or worse than on other days.

My somewhat subjective opinion is that the flute retains a very textured tone, easily identifiable from a Boehm. It has a brighter and louder tone than before and I believe I feel a stronger resonance in the body when playing in the lower register. These changes are not startling, but they are noticeable. When I'm in the groove, I feel the overall sound and response is more solid, an opinion that has been sustained even after the time that has passed since I installed the dime.

I'm kind of surprised that this subject has never come up before (or has it?). Terry McGee, where are you?

[Feadoggie]

I have taken matters into my own hands and superglued a dime to the head cork, with the tails end facing the embouchure.

No, no, no! It has to be the "heads" side of the coin facing the embouchure hole!

Thanks for sharing your experiment and results.

I'm kind of surprised that this subject has never come up before (or has it?).

The dime trick has been discussed several times. Here are a couple threads.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=35863

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24519 and here

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=61535

Feadoggie

[Terry McGee]

Terry McGee, where are you?

Wozzat? Sorry, I was just following the old southern hemisphere tradition of sleeping at night! Now, what's up?

Ah, stopper facing. I wouldn't expect a big change, unless the current face of the stopper is very rough or seriously leaking. (Surprisingly, a small leak in the stopper doesn't make much difference - it presumably still has enough impedance at playing frequencies to limit flow to negligible.) If there were to be a change it would probably be in brightness terms.

I'm not aware of any studies into the effect of stopper surface material. It would be a bit tricky to do because of human inconsistency. It should be possible with a blowing machine and a good rigid setup. I do hope to get on to building such a machine when I get my backlog under control, and I'll be happy to look at it then.

It seems that the Boehm flute industry believes in the silver disk, but it might be that it was just an easy and reliable way to make an adjustable cork. Then again, I use a delrin stopper with cork just around the outside, so maybe I believe in a smooth hard surface too!

You certainly won't do any harm adding a coin to the front, and I doubt if you'll tell the difference between heads and tails. In my younger days, I drove a Triumph TR3A roadster. The suspension was so hard it was popularly asserted that if you drove over a penny in the road, you could tell whether it was heads or tails up.

Terry

[Cubitt]

Well, it seems I win no awards for originality. Thank you, Feadoggie, for taking the time to post those links. Even though these posts came about during my tenure, I have to admit I don't read every thread and in this case, missed them all. Seems there is good consensus regarding the efficacy of adding the dime, so better late than never for yours truly.

Now you'll have to excuse me, but I've just flipped that dime so that the proper side is now facing the embouchure, and I have to see if the glue has dried. Thanks, again, Feadoggie!