What the....?
It must have been a Monday job!

That's what happens when you make your flutes in China...

Are they making the headjoints over there or here?

Suzie, do you have the link where you found this, I can forward it to Haynes then..

I can guarantee that it's either being made offshore and they are lying or it's a fake. Possibly both. Nobody would make such an obvious mistake.

It's beginning to look like the only way to be sure any more is to actually get a real handmade flute. Kind of sad, really.

Could be a mistake or even a rare one of a kind. Mistakes do happen and sometimes on purpose. I had heard that the Groves Dictionary as detailed and accurate as anything can be, always has some sort of erroneous entry in it that is intentionally placed in the printings as a joke by the editors.

This head joint could be a first stamping with a mistake accidentally designed into the die of the stamp. I"d bet that it was caught and the company moved on. Probably a collector's item.

Bilbo wrote: "I had heard that the Groves Dictionary as detailed and accurate as anything can be, always has some sort of erroneous entry in it that is intentionally placed in the printings as a joke by the editors."

If you ever see a volume that has "Groves Dictionary" on the spine or title page, do save it. It will be a collector's item for that typo.

"If you ever see a volume that has "Groves Dictionary" on the spine or title page, do save it. It will be a collector's item for that typo."

Aha "travel2165 !!!!!, It is a good thing that you did understand exactly what I meant when I referred to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians as the Groves Dictionary.
For those that didn't, this publication can be had for a fair bargain right now......
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195170679

well, an older set may be a bargain but it probably doesn't have an entry for John Lennon

still usefull, almost antique, i'd keep them i while then sell them in about 10 or 20 years, you'd be able to get a new flute with the money you'd get