I was just having a conversation with a friend of mine and we were talking about resizing headjoints. His teacher is against doing this and I just wondered what your opinions on this would be?

I don't have a problem with having a head resized to fit a flute if it is not a drastic re sizing. I think by only picking a head that will fit your current flute would be very limiting.

I would really be interested in what Joe B may think of this, but I haven't seen him on here lately.

YOu know, I was just thinking about Joe a little while ago....I wonder where he went? I am all for resizing a head as long as it's not going to change the way the head plays. I cannot think of any good reason NOT to be willing to resize a head if it's one that you like. It does seem extremely limiting to me too.

Kara, do you read minds?? ;-))
Cause this is just what I'm facing now!

I've just ordered a Nagahara head, and you know that It'll be impossible for me to experiment this new head in my flute, since I'm far away abroad. Nagahara advised me that there must not be a perfect match. So the deal is Mr.Nagahara will make the head a little smaller (very little) and my technician will adjust it to fit perfectly. BTW, this technician is someone I really trust. He told me also that it's better to have a smaller rather than a larger head. It's easier to adjust. But in either case he told it's possible do adjust without any problem.
But it's good to remember that we speak of small, very small adjustments.

cheers,

Zevang

Where am I? Well it's the start of the school year...(can you say up to my ears in busy???? Rentals, repairs, no time to do much of anything else...yikes!)

Resizing. Plating up or sleeving to a grossly larger size is never a problem because the integrity of the bore will remain unchanged. Even streching up to a modest sizing is not too big a deal either. The problems come in when you need to shrink.

Flute bores are fairly consistant in size and the differences in fit are due to the thickness of the metal. You don't want to put a constriction at the bore, and at the tenon end. A little is not a big deal if it's close, but putting a heavy wall muramatsu head on an old thinwall haynes is just asking for trouble.

Like with all things..moderation is the key and will dictate if something like sizing is feasable.

Joe B

This is sort of in keeping with this thread, and something I was wondering...

How do you try out a headjoint if it doesn't precisely fit your flute?

Judy

Pickled, I actually was thinking of try fitting the head first, and in case it matches, try playing it.

Zevang

Thanks so much for your replies.

Joe, sounds like you are keeping yourself really busy! Thank you so much for taking time out to answer this post. I have missed seeing you on here.

Zevang, that is great that you are getting a Nagahara head! I am sure you are going to love it as I love mine.

Judy, if the headjoint is too big, then obviously you wouldn't be able to try it out. But, if the head is too small, you can usually put a piece of tape around the tenon of the head to get an idea of how it will sound. Some people like to use plumbers tape, but I don't much care for it and I like to use clear packaging tape or scotch.

Thanks Kara!

I'm really excited about that.
It will arrive by mid november, so I just can't wait... :-)

Zevang

I had to resize my jack moore head on my old Haynes a bit, and now I like it, so I don't think it's a big deal