Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

fauzie wrote:

I read somewhere that the 2nd octave tends to be flat. But on my flute it is sharp by almost a quarter tone. How could I fix this? And should I tune the 1st octave first and then adjust the 2nd or vice versa?

Thanks.

Hello Fauzie,

Welcome to the forum!

Are you using a tapered bore? Octave tuning problems are often the result of 1/2 the bore length having too much or too little volume (space). One way to check this is by filling half the bore with a long piece of folded wet newspaper. If it makes the problem worse, take it out and try filling the other half. Sometimes this works! If you get some results you'll know either one side needs filling or the other needs grinding.

I'd say at first it's better to tune the low octave before moving on to the second. Later, when you get used to working the bore, there may be times when you can get more complicated, look ahead and combine fixes for both octaves simultaneously. That can get tricky.

Good luck!

Ken

fauzie wrote:

Thanks for the info.

I'm using a natural, non-root bamboo I bought for approximately 50cents US, long enough to make 4 flutes ...
The tuning is much harder than what I expected, but after correctly tuning the 1st octave, the 2nd octave intonation improves, although still far from perfect.

I noticed that my high D (Go No Hi, not the high Ro) is rather hard to produce. What may be the cause of this? Or is it normal?

One issue with a non-tapered bore is that the second register starts to go out of tune. You'll likely have better luck with a tapered bore. Upper second register difficulties suggest that the "aspect ratio" is too wide. In other words, the width of the bore may be too wide for the length of the flute.

fauzie wrote:

okay I got it worked out ... adding a very big blob in the middle of the flute fix the octave tuning problem nicely. And I end up with two problems

1. The very big blob in the middle of the bore doesn't look very nice.

Solution: Don't look at it. [some of John Neptune's excellent jinashi flutes have bores that look like five miles of bad road, from the blobs therein]

fauzie wrote:

2. The flute is now about a quarter tone sharp from standard D, but well tuned to itself. I think I can fix this by adding another big blob

Well, I'm quite happy to get a usable flute in my first try. I'll find a better piece of bamboo for my next one.

Solution: Might want to leave it alone, as pushing the pitch around will likely have other consequences. Consider yourself
fortunate on your first try

eB

Good on ya!

Soon, you'll be giving Mujitsu a run for his money

Last edited by edosan (2008-06-11 13:04:27)