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When I look through all of my bamboo flutes I have bought over the years (2 quenas, 9 bansuri's and 2 cheap bad shakuhachi-like flutes), the inside (the bore, right?) is completely clean and rinsed out. There is generally no trace of the nodes on the inside.
But when I read the PDF by LaCosse it seemed as if it wasn't that important to clean out the nodes to the point where they are levelled to the bore. He wrote that you could make the holes first and then work on what's left of the nodes to fine tune the flute.
How important is it for the sound of the flute to have them grinded flush to the bore? I know you may affect the pitch by removing more or less of them, but this ought to have effect on the actual sound quality of the shakuhachi. Since the nodes are present on just a few places in the bore it ought to effect the sound negatively when playing notes that break of the air, in 1/2, 1/4 and so on, directly on the nodes.
How much do you guys remove?
Do you grind them doewn completely before you even make the utaguchi?
How important is it to have an even air tunnel in a shakuhachi?
Thanks for all you invaluble help so far. You guys rock!
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I remove most of them but not all. Ken's PDF stresses a subtractive approach. Remove as much as you need, no more. Depending on the size and bore diameter of the flute it can play first and second octaves very cleanly even with significant amount of nodes present.
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I generally just get it nice and clean, and pay attention to smoothness overall: air will flow more easily over a node that's smooth than over a node with a big bump in it.
I dont' sand down all the way, but at least enough to give me a clear path. Then I do my Utaguchi to see what my Ro is, then sand the nodes down from there. Sometimes you get lucky, and you don't have to do that much with the bore, and sometimes you have to work at it.
You can always take away, but it's harder to add. So it's easier to start out with wiggle room.
-E
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