Why don`t Professional flutes have any adjustment screws? I was just wondering about this because student flutes and intermediate flutes have them but why don`t professional flutes have any?

Muramatsu flutes are now making some of their pro models with adjustment screws. Good question though. Some say that they stay in adjustment longer. All I know is that they are a pain to adjust without the screws.

Aesthetics.

Gemeinhardts have large obvious screws, Armstrongs have mid-sized obvious screws, Yamahas have mini obvious screws, Buffets hide their screws under their keys, Pearls have pinless construction.

The screw allows a person to make a minor adjustment themselves should the need arise. The need should not arise on a well made flute.

I have not had a need to adjist screws on my Gemeinhardt at all and it`s been 8 years, but on my old Armstrong in the first year the need arose bi-weekly. Heck... even the rod screws were creeping out.

I regard it as bizarre that a piece of precision machinery that needs to be adjusted to a very precise condition, in modern times, is still sometimes made without adequate provision to do this efficiently.

I am sure that every experienced engineer dealing with precision equipment would agree with me.

It is crazy to have to spend perhaps several hundred times as long to make an adjustment on a flute without adjusting screws.

Furthermore, flutes without them use as their adjustment method, gluing tiny bits of paper, `sausage skin` etc, often layer upon layer, in an area where there is a considerable likelihood of oil seeping to the paper and releasing an adhesive. Every layer of glue is another problem waiting to happen.

To me, the absence of screws is just a crazy tradition, based on some sort of snob thing. (BTW I regret that my own flute doesn`t have them. I was naive when I bought the flute.)

Piko:

1. The pinless construction of Pearl flutes has nothing to do with adjusting screws. It is to do with an alternative to the `knock pins` which hold some tubes to the steel shafts that go through the tubes.

2. If you had a flute that needed that frequent adjusting, then I suggest that you really needed a more capable technician. A good technician should leave any but the very poorest-made flutes in a reliable condition - NO SCREWS working loose, and adjustments secure.

BTW there are far more adjustments involved in adjusting a flute than just turning 3 - 5 screws, or shimming their non-screw equivalents.!

My 13 year old Armstrong was my first flute. Just an adjustment example. I still have the old thing... silver plating eaten through by time and all. It`s not worth an adjustment, I keep it for sentimental reasons.

Fair enough.