Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Hi Itamar,

I visited Monty last year and tried and discussed the Shakulute, and we compared it to my Okuralo, which is basically a concert flute with metal shakuhachi-type headjoint. The most important thing is that the bore of your headjoint should be completely cylindrical at the diameter of the flute body, usually about 17mm. This is different from a normal flute headjoint, which gets narrower near the embouchure hole. The very top, at the utaguchi end, can flare to about 20mm in the last few mm, but if there is any variation in the diameter further down the tube it will completely screw up the octaves, as you found out.

In terms of construction, the biggest problem will be to find the appropriate-size tubing to make the tenon. There should be no break or gap or bump where the metal tube attaches inside the bamboo. If you can solve those problems the rest is pretty easy.

You will need to construct some kind of thumb rest for holding the flute vertically. There are several keys that become a bit awkward in that position, but nothing fatal. When I get back to Tokyo next week I can send you some measurements for the length from end to top of utaguchi for playing A=440.

Using a shakuhachi-type head joint on a concert flute is very interesting: the tone is much more concentrated than the somewhat hollow sound of the side-blown flute, with a more powerful low end. And of course you have the wide blowing and expressive possibilities of the utaguchi. One thing to know is that in all end-blown flutes, the third octave is about 25 cents sharp (starting around high F or G). There is an acoustic reason for this, and it might be possible to design an utaguchi-type head with an expansion just below the utaguchi that would correct this, but this possibility has not be widely explored. If you do run across a source of metal tubing of the right diameter please give me a contact!

Toby

Last edited by Toby (2010-07-12 23:23:40)

If the brass tube fits in your tenon receiver it should work fine. I'll post measurements in a couple of days, and give you a link to some pictures of the Okuralo and headjoint.