Does a gold lip plate make much of a difference at all?

Its supposed to give you a darker tone I believe. I have a gold lip plate on my new flute and I can totally hear the difference.

Yeah me too.

Can you hear the difference in the material of the lip plate or just the better-quality flute?

A gold lip plate doesn`t lend a LOT to the sound, but it does look pretty. My guess is you hear a better sound coming from your flute because it`s a better flute, not because the lip plate is gold.

I agree.

Its not supposed to give out a difference. Its just supposed to help with allergic reactions, i.e. My bottom lip broke out easly until I bought a new flute with the gold lip plate

umm... no...
a gold lip plate was not designed to help prevent allergic reactions.

If you have an allergic reaction it`s probaby due to the fact that your flute is made or plated with sterling silver.

If a gold lip plate was made to prevent allergic reactions it would be seen on a lot more flutes than just pro models. (try to find a student model with a gold lip plate and you`ll see what I mean)
:-D

It is a marketing ploy, to con gullible players who have been led to believe that it will make the flute play better.

the gold lip plate doesnt really make a difference to the sound... what will change the sound however is a gold riser

Leslie was writing about a gold lip plate, but the question was about gold plating of the lip plate. Very different.

It won`t affect sound, but will reduce allergic reactions for some people.

Grossly overpriced for the gullible, as has been mentioned.

And the gold plating, being very soft, is likely to very quickly wear through, leaving a blotchy mess of silver and gold.

When I went to topwind to get my new headjoint (not flute, just head) I shortlisted all the approx500 options to 4. One made GORGEOUS sound but looked HORRIBLE about twice the width of a normal flute and black wood. I knew I would never be totally happy. Another had a woodlip, another was totally silver and another had a weird-cut gold lip. I went for the gold one, for the sound not looks. but I was just proving a point that gold DOESN`T make a difference to sound. It was coincidental that mine was gold.

Gold plating will not make any difference to the sound. If it is solid gold and so is the riser, yes it will.The same can be said of the headjiont or the flute body. All metals and woods will make a flute sound different but it is totally subjective as to what is better.
Go here to look at flute materials

http://www3.telus.net/Garry_McKevitt/goldsilver.htm

here is a piece for the site:-

3. Galway also states in his PBS Biography that he cannot tell which flute (gold/silver/other) that he is playing on which CD. He simply can`t tell them apart by listening.

4. Albert Cooper is said to have invited a group of flute specialists
over one evening to try a new kind of flute material out. Blindfolded,
each was handed the same flute and asked to guess the proportions of
"mystery" headjoint material by simply blowing on it and listening
carefully.
They guessed all sorts of things: 10% gold, 20% platinum etc. etc.
After they`d all put in their guesses, Cooper revealed that he`d made
this headjoint out of melted down kitchen saucepan.

Cooper`s summary? It`s not the material it`s the craftsmanship

Many people will assume that the previous post was written by Meme. I want to state categorically that it was not.

Thank you, Ashley, for your post. Meme was castigated for daring to say such things in a gold-worshipping flute forum, providing much of the same reference material.

Now that the big name Jennifer Cluff has put the material together in her web site I hope people will give it a little more credence.

In your link, Jennifer does make her own statements, one of which is "All is conjecture, speculation and subjective opinion.."

This is either simply incorrect, or unintentionally ambiguous. She MAY be referring to her OWN speculation and subjective opinion, but in context, the statement seems to read that the material question itself is all speculation and subjective opinion. The information she provides is of an OBJECTIVE nature, and is NOT speculative.

there`s no difference. it doesn`t make the tone richer or vis-versa. what makes THAT difference is the shape and a much more complicated thing than the metal. the gold is there because some people are allergic to silver. others just enjoy the say it looks.

I have a solid gold lip plate and solid gold riser and sorry, but it does NOT make any difference. What loser would get a gold-plated lip - it would just be to look nice