I was told that a flute is supposed to be played ....

MissyHPhoenix · Post by **MissyHPhoenix** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:31 am

Hi again. I'm going to try to keep this as short as possible, but have to explain what is going on.

I bought a new Amadeus 900 last October. Loved it for a couple of months, then it literally started falling apart. A cork fell off, was replaced, two days later another fell off; repairman showed me that ALL of the corks/pads were literally sliding off the flute, so he replaced them all. Then a week later I started having trouble with keys not coming back up; repairman took it apart and a wire was bent. Fixed that. Then a couple days later, the middle D would not come out. Took it back in; supposedly fixed. Then the E and F would not play. At that point, the store gave me another brand new Amadeus because the first one was obviously defective. This was 1-1/2 months ago.

At first the flute played brilliantly and effortlessly. After a month, tho, I noticed that it was getting more and more sharp in the upper registers. I began having to pull the headjoint out further and further to get it more in tune. Then last Monday at a rehearsal, it crapped out entirely. Every note above D (above the staff) was so sharp that I could not play it. I ended up playing all the songs an octave lower the whole rehearsal. I thought it was simply me, that I was just too tense that night. So the next day I worked and worked and worked on it, trying everything I could to get myself back in tune. I ended up pulling the headjoint out more than an inch, which STILL didn't get the upper registers less sharp, and also made the middle registers, which are usually very bright, dull and dead-sounding instead.

My first instinct in everything is to blame myself, so I was convinced my playing was at fault. I took two days off to let my jaws rest, and then decided to do a comparison test of my playing. I took my student flute, my Orpheo, and the Amadeus and lined them up. I played the same piece of music on each of them with the tuner on the stand and, LO AND BEHOLD, the student and Orpheo flutes were in tune, no problems at all, but the Amadeus still buried to the right of the tuner.

I called the manager of the store where I purchased the flute and told her the problem; she told me to bring it down to the repairman (the one who had worked on the first Amadeus) to let him look at it. When I got there, the repairman (who is not a flute player, by the way) told me that there was nothing wrong with the flute, that I was just not pulling the headjoint out enough to make up for the sharpness. When I showed him that I had been playing with it pulled out MORE than one inch, he said that the flute is made to be played with the headjoint pulled out at least that much, that a flute should never be played with the headjoint pushed all of the way in.

Huh????

I have never heard this before! My other two flutes are always played with the headjoint completely in, and they are always in tune. Is this something particular only to the higher-end flutes???? DOesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, happy ending to the story, the manager of the store (who is a flute player) tried out the Amadeus and she could not get it to play in tune either. The store is going to give me another flute of my choice, which will NOT be an Amadeus!

So .... have any of you had anything like this happen before? Have I just been playing the flute wrong in the past (even tho I do manage to play my other flutes in tune .....)? Also, am I wrong to think that a flute that costs over $2500 should last a wee bit longer than THREE months!!!

I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this one.

pied_piper · Post by **pied_piper** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:58 am

The repairman is badly mistaken that you should need to pull out one inch. Most modern scale flutes are tuned to A=442 and if your band or orchestra tunes to A=440, then your flute would be a little sharp when the headjoint is pushed all the way in. In that scenario, it is typical that you will need to pull out maybe 1/8" to 1/4", but certainly not a full inch.

Since the flute played in tune when you first got it, I would suspect that the headjoint cork has moved and needs to be adjusted to the correct position. When the cork is not in the correct position, the octaves will be out of tune. If you get middle D in tune by pulling out the headjoint, the low D and high D would be out of tune. Whether those notes are flat are sharp depends upon whether the cork is too far in or too far out.

The cork should be set 17.3 mm from the center of the embouchure hole. Did you check the cork position with your cleaning rod? Some cleaning rods are marked with the line in the wrong place. Use a metric ruler and be sure that the line is 17.3 mm from the end. Then insert it into your flute and check that the line is centered on the embouchure hole. If not, then adjust the position of the cork:

With the crown on your left and the cleaning rod fully inserted into the headjoint, if the line is left of center, you will need to turn the crown counter-clockwise and push in on the crown to move it to the right. If the line is right of center, turn the crown clockwise which will pull the cork toward the crown. Do this in 1/4 turn increments until the cork is in the correct position and then try playing to see if that improves the intonation.

fluttiegurl · Post by **fluttiegurl** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:08 am

I would have serious problems buying from a store whose repair tech had this little knowledge about the flute.

MissyHPhoenix · Post by **MissyHPhoenix** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:12 pm

I did check the cork, and the repairman checked it too. He pushed it in a little more and said try playing with that -- that is when I returned to the manager, who could not play it in tune, either. I should've stated originally that I checked the headcork first thing 'cause that is usually what my problem is if I'm too sharp. I'm not saying that I play completely in tune all the time (because I definitely do not!!), but I am usually able to compensate to keep fairly in tune; and the Amadeus was just plain buried to the right of the tuner and nothing I did could get it back. Period. It was weird. Never had anything like that happen before.

My instructor is going to help me find a better flute, thank goodness. I had gone to her after I'd already put the Amadeus on layaway and she wasn't really thrilled about it. I'm glad y'all think the repairman didn't know what he was talking about! Altho, to give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was talking about tuning to the orchestra and generalized that .... but again, I never, ever had anybody say that a flute should be played with the headjoint pulled out THAT much. Agh.