I believe I will trade in my J1 headjoint for a M1 or S1. Are the other Gemeinhardt head joints (not J1) better than the standard J1?

Oh, and I'm having problems finding a Gemeinhardt dealer. Any tips on how to Google it?

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Actually, I'm not going to trade it in. I'll have to buy it.

Every headjoint suits certain people. You'll need to try the various options in your budget to decide which one is best for you.

I've tried some headjoints on from other friends' good flutes and discovered that they don't fit my flute! They're all slightly loose. Do only Gemeinhardt headjoints fit Gemeinhardt flutes?

Most headjoints will be a slightly different fit, whether smaller or larger. A small adjustment can be managed by just about any band instrument tech, to get the fit perfect. If the fit will be a bigger adjustment, you might have to find a specialist to fit it.

While the FIT of almost any headjoint can be adjusted to fit almost any flute, it must be said that some headjoints do not complement some flutes.

Flutist06 is exactly right; different headjoints will suit different people. Try several, and see which you find has the best tone, response/articulation, low range, etc.

A Gemeinhardt headjoint will be fairly easily fitted to a Gemeinhardt flute- and you CAN put a new headjoint into an older student flute; this is a much cheaper upgrade option than a whole new flute. The sound comes from the headjoint, and there's usually not much good reason to pay for the open holes and B-foot anyway- provided that your flute body is in good condition.

It would probably be worh your time to try out other headjoints, such as Yamaha and Jupiter which will be easily available. Pro headjoints can be found used for a pretty reasonable cost, although you always want to try one before you buy it. Any hand-cut headjoint will have a slightly unique character- every one is a little different. So if you fall in love with, say, your friend's Miyazawa MZ-5 cut headjoint, be prepared to try several other MZ-5's before you find the right one. And you might find that an MZ-6 fits you better!

Does anyone know if Jupiter diMedici headjoints tend to have a larger diameter than other brands?

I just bought a brand new diMedici D2 headjoint for my Yamaha 481 and it is way too tight (i.e., it won't fit in more than 1/8 inch). I have several other flutes (Pearl 501, Armstrong 80, and Yamaha 581) and it is very tight on all of them as well.

I will probably get it fitted for the Yamaha 481 (as long as it doesn't cost too much). But do all diMedici headjoints have larger diameters, or is it just the one that I purchased?

P.S. - I purchased the headjoint since I heard good things about the diMedici D2 on various forums and it only cost $85 (list price is $340).

Does anyone know if Jupiter diMedici headjoints tend to have a larger diameter than other brands?

I just bought a brand new diMedici D2 headjoint for my Yamaha 481 and it is way too tight (i.e., it won't fit in more than 1/8 inch). I have several other flutes (Pearl 501, Armstrong 80, and Yamaha 581) and it is very tight on all of them as well.

I will probably get it fitted for the Yamaha 481 (as long as it doesn't cost too much). But do all diMedici headjoints have larger diameters, or is it just the one that I purchased?

P.S. - I purchased the headjoint since I heard good things about the diMedici D2 on various forums and it only cost $85 (list price is $340).

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(Sorry, I got a Visual Basic error when I first posted it. Now it doesn't let me delete this second post!)

I wouldn't advise fitting the head to your Yamaha if it's that oversized. Sizing down can change the playing characteristics of the head, even when performed by an excellent tech.

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If you happen to buy additional heads in the future, you should take the size of the tenon in comparison to the barrel of the flute you wish to put it on into account to be sure you don't have to size it too much. Sizing down is the most dangerous, but sizing up too much can also change the way the head plays. You want the closest fit you can find for your flute without sizing.

Yamaha student flute barrels are the smallest you will come across. It is probably a means to keep people on Yamaha heads, to prevent experimentation with professional head joints or cost saving by using less metal to make the bodies. You will find standard professional flute headjoint sizes to be much larger in size.

You can only size down so much before the headjoint is destroyed.

Since bore diameter is the same for all standard concert flutes the reason why the barrel is so small is because body metal is thin, at least at the point of the barrel.

I've had a Muramatsu head adjusted to fit a Pearl flute, but even after that reduction there was no way it was close to fitting into my friend's Yam481 and no way the headjoint could have been reduced any further without destroying it.

Hmm.. that is odd. I am able to switch headjoints around from my Powell standard wall flute to my student Yamaha without any problems. Now, my Miyazawa has a smaller receiver then the two. Gemeinhardt student flutes have yet an even smaller receiver then a student Yamaha from the flutes that I have seen.

My old Gem 3SB circa 1997 had a barrel that will fit standard professional heads without adjustment. The Yam-481 of my friends was no more than 3 years old.

Perhaps flutes are getting... thinner?

http://www.burkart.com/faq.htm?sid=0001UegyjQFFFSEsQU0x402

Boehm determined empirically that 19mm was an optimum inner diameter for the C flute long ago. Some of us flutemakers have experimented with 19.5mm and 20mm since then, but the vast majority of flutes today use 19mm. By the way, 19mm equals 0.748 inch (just short of 3/4" which is the diameter of a penny! That means that you can use a penny to gauge the bore of your headjoint or your flute body and compare it to others! Just make sure you don't push it in so far you can't retrieve it. What varies is the wall thickness. So the inner diameters are the same, but the outer diameters are not. Hence, a different headjoint may be loose, fit just right, or not go into your flute barrel. A machinist, toolmaker, or flutemaker can measure your flute to tell you what the wall thickness is and what the inner diameter of your barrel joint is. With that information, there are quite a few flutemakers and headjoint makers who would be happy to send you headjoints on trial. The more skillful ones will make sure that the position of the embouchure hole and taper of the tube are appropriate for your instrument.

Does anyone know if the Jupiter diMedici headjoints (specifically, the D2) are silver plated over the solid silver, much like many Yamaha headjoints?

If so, will that affect the ability to get it resized to fit my flute?

Thanks!

I don't believe Yamaha plates over it's solid silver heads, nor do I believe DiMedici does. Assuming I'm correct and it's solid silver without a plate layer, and that the head doesn't need to be shrunk too much, there should be no issue. If the head is just too large, it could potentially destroy it to have it fitted to your Yammie, or if it's plated, sizing may ruin the plate layer in the area of the tenon, but that in itself should not affect the playing characteristics. I'm sure Micron or Joe will be able to speak on this.

I phrased as I did about Yamaha and other makes for the specific reason that I was not sure about the plating. They may very well do this, but I have not heard anything about it, so until I see some evidence that they do, I choose not to believe. Notice that I did not say "Yamaha does not plate over their silver heads." I save concrete statements for things I know are factual, and more open-ended ones for things that are my opinion or aren't fully substantiated. As for destroying the head, I meant "destroy the playing characteristics of the head." It should not obliterate the head itself (reducing it to a pile of scrap or something like that), but significant resizing can affect how the head plays. I've experienced this first hand, even when the resizing was performed by an *excellent* tech. As for ruining the plate layer around the tenon, I also included the word "may," indicating that there are circumstances where it could happen, as well as circumstances where it won't. Say a tech was using sub-par tools that weren't smooth, or didn't ujse a lubricant, or the tech is just not as skilled as you...Then the plating could be ruined, as I said. I'm sorry if my post caused confusion or aggravation. Your expertise in this area is precisely why I mentioned that you and Joe would probably be able to post more accurately and fully on the situation.

There is only so much metal to scrape off before you reach the other side.

Alternative methods involve modifying the bore taper which not only devalues a headjoint (generally visible to the naked eye) or the flutes range and timbre can be negatively affected from the modified taper.

Regards,
Stephen