So, as I posted a long time ago, I was having intonation issues on my yamaha 481, the pitch was always a little high. A week ago I have a G donut installed in the flute and now not only my high E is notoriously easier to produce and more stable, but also it lower the pitch: now I don't have to be a mouth contortionist to get the right pitch!!!!!!!!

You just got to love flute engineers. This posting is a thank you note to all of those people who spend their lifes creating these cool things to make player's lifes easier.

I found that anytime I need a long tone E3, I close the G key but vent its open hole.

I tried an Emerson with a small lower G key (the effect is just like a G donut). It was OK but sounded F3 a bit muddy.

Overall the effect was similar to my split-E flute.

The only time I have a preference for one over the other is when I haven't played for a while (like surgery last fall) and the closed hole/split E makes life easier.