I recall you gave up flute because of postural problems????

And that others here have mentioned them too.

Has anybody tried either of these:

http://www.flutelab.com/vertical/vertical.htm

http://www.drelinger.com/brochure/uprite_brochure5.htm#brochureTop

I have never tried one yet, but they look really interesting.

Is Drenlinger the only one that makes them? If so, I wouldn`t be trying any untill someone else came out with one. I really despise any Drenlinger headjoint that I have ever tried.

Thanks for the link.

Oh, I see from the other site that it isn`t just Drenlinger who makes these. Great!

Well, it wasn`t the main reason I gave up studying music, but it`s a big part of the reason I barely play now! I`ve seen these before and they look very interesting. I`d love to try one just for novelty factor.

nice to see you back Arak, whatever teh circumstances. You have some real knowledge.

Thank you Davy.

I never stopped writing here at least a few times per week. However I am pretty selective about which threads I even look at, choosing only the areas where I have some interest or expertise,or simply info to offer, as in this one.

You won`t get me commenting about these heads without trying them, except for the following:

The cross-sectional area inside the flute at any point is highly significant tone, pitch, and stability of notes (i.e. not `cracking`, jumping up an octave, `burbling` etc)

Imagine travelling down inside a curved headjoint, starting from the stopper. The diameter gets gradually greater until you get right at the bend. Then, before you even glance sideways to go around the bend, the cross sectional area has dramatically increased to almost twice. Then as you actually turn the bend it is back to what it should be.

These are significant considerations in the acoustic design of a sax, where there is a very sharp bend relative to the diameter, at the bow (i.e. near the big end).

The Drelinger-type heads have some VERY sharp bends, in an area of the flute that is far more critical than the bow area is to a saxophone.

So I would EXPECT any such bent head to be less perfect in performance than the standard-type head.

those look weird. i dont think that i could ever play on one.

They look very tempting to me. I`ve had two shoulder and one wrist injury in the past three years (not flute playing related). Playing flute can sometimes be pretty uncomfortable (especially the shoulders). Of course the temptation quickly faded when I looked at the price! Ouch!!