according to this link:



the yamaha 381 i own has a CY cut headjoint. Any idea when this production took place?and isit machine made?

i bought my flute in 2003 but im not sure whether mine has the CY cut headjoint....any help would be great thanks

uhhhhh ok thx...that last sentence was all i needed.

btw that was the exact link i wanted to show...but somehow it didnt turn up. oh well

If your second question "and isit machine made?" is asking about the CY headjoint, the answer would be yes.

The handcut Yamaha headjoints have the cut and taper marking (e.g, CY or EC) engraved on the headjoint near the crown.

I have also seen some Yamaha headjoints that have the cut and taper marking engraved under the Yamaha logo, but I don't know whether these are handcut or machine made.

If there is no cut and taper marking at all, then it is most likely a machine-made CY headjoint.

hey thx guys for the response thus far!

just 1 last question...

is there a noticeable difference when playing a Handmade compared to Machinmade CY cut headjoint?

Every hand made head is different, as each is created by a human rather than a machine. Cutting a head by hand involves taking off a tiny amount of metal at a time until you arrive at a head you like. Any slips here or there can drastically change how the head plays, so it really depends on the individual handmade CY you're comparing to the machine made one. I'm sure some of the handmade CY's play very similarly to the machinemades, and some play quite differently. Generally, handmade heads are of better quality and have a better cut on them, so if you have the choice between handmade and machinemade, I would go with the handmade.

Yes, for me there is a noticeable difference between the machine-made and the handcut CY headjoint (I have both). My handcut one has a much fuller low register and allows me to play louder in all registers without the pitch cracking. With my machine-made one, the tone is nice, but the low notes are more mellow and don't "pop out" as much and I have to be careful not to play too loud on some notes or the pitch will crack. The handcut one provides me with more flexibility for tone and color.

Handcut Yamaha headjoints cost upwards of $900 (see http://www.winds101.com/headjoints.htm ), which is probably not feasible for anyone purchasing a Yamaha 381.

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Oops! I see you already own a Yamaha 381. Upgrading the headjoint would probably be beneficial, if you can afford it. You might also try out the EC headjoint, which many people prefer (but not me, personally).

Also, don't limit yourself to only handcut Yamaha headjoints. Try as many as you can get ahold of to see which works best for you.

You can actually find handcut Yamaha heads for as little as $250 dollars if you're willing to be patient and know what you're looking at.

On the other side of the handcut/machine made debate:

I bought a Yamaha 881 (handmade, soldered toneholes) three years ago, off eBay for $1800. The flute was made in the 1990's and had a handcut CY headjoint.

I think nobody bought the flute before 2003 because of the headjoint- it was really not all that great. In fact, my plated Pearl headjoint off my Pearl 501E flute played better than that CY head- better response, more tone colors.

Looking more closely, the CY had an asymmetrical embouchure hole. And it also had the odd characteristic that it would STOP SOUNDING when moisture built up to the left of the embouchure hole. Weird.

Anyway, I stuck a lovely Prima Sankyo NRS-1 in the flute and sold the weird CY.

A handcut headjoint can be better- or worse!- than a machine made.

I think the theory has been brought up here before that Powell's handcut headjoints go one of two directions- the really good ones go with the most expensive flutes, and the 'just OK' ones go with the Sonare line. We'll assume that the 'oops' ones get melted down again...

My handcut CY does not appear asymmetrical and doesn't experience the problem of not playing when wet. Perhaps you just got a dud. I guess that's the danger of getting handcut -- no two are exactly the same. Another possibility is that the original owner had it recut to fit their needs.

I also have a Pearl 501 and IMHO its headjoint is comparable to the machine-made CY.

They sell the dud on eBay...

If the headjoint was re-cut, it was done very early in the flute's ownership. When I bought it, the flute had nary a mark on it. It had likely been test-played before, but it was remarkably clean.

I would love to be able to try your handcut CY headjoint. I don't imagine that you live anywhere near Oregon, though...Surely there's SOME reason Yamaha sold them with their high end flutes! I love to try out new headjoints, even if I don't buy them. To me, they need 'figuring out' so that they can be played well, and often what I learn to play one headjoint well serves me well when I go back to my own headjoint. I recently found much better response to my Miyazawa MZ-5 headjoint by changing the pressure point to my face a bit lower. I have a much higher opinion of the headjoint now!

Sorry, I'm in DC. Even if you could try it out, you might not get the same results as I do. Headjoints are very subjective.

What is a CY cut?

Yamaha offers several different cuts of headjoints, as do some other makers. You can select the one that best fits your playing. Since the heart of the flute's sound and response are in the head, a poorly matched head can make it very difficult to play well. "CY" is the designation for one of the options of head. It has the "C" cut, and the "Y" taper. Other common options are EC, CG, and SY. Different combinations of cut and taper lend different playing characteristics to the head, and make it suitable for different players.

What type of player is the CY cut suited for?