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Hey guys,
i've been messing around with shaping the bore and i've kinda hit a brick wall... here's the problem.
after i've shaped it etc... the dry/cured paste is in the bore, BUT, no laquer. so the surface is dry....
I can't really get much sound at all. and the kan register is just impossible.
if i laquer the bore, the flute works fine....soooooooo here's my question.
how/when do you guys "fine tune" a flute. Is it before or after the laquer. i'd rather not have to laquer the bore 15x just to tweak it.
how are you supposed to tell if you've done it right if you can't play the flute to test it..... am i crazy?
Jacques
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Hi Jacques,
jaybeemusic wrote:
Hey guys,
i've been messing around with shaping the bore and i've kinda hit a brick wall... here's the problem.
after i've shaped it etc... the dry/cured paste is in the bore, BUT, no laquer. so the surface is dry....
I can't really get much sound at all. and the kan register is just impossible.
if i lacquer the bore, the flute works fine....soooooooo here's my question.
how/when do you guys "fine tune" a flute. Is it before or after the lacquer.
I do it before and after and go back and forth many times.
i'd rather not have to lacquer the bore 15x just to tweak it.
Some makers will say you are lucky if you've only done it 15xs!
how are you supposed to tell if you've done it right if you can't play the flute to test it..... am i crazy?
Jacques
In my experience, the lacquer adds brightness to the timbre and very very little response. Your flute should work 95% the way it will work in the pre-lacquered stage.
Good luck, Perry
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You might notice that after playing a flute for a while it will warm up, absorb humidity from your breath. Perhaps playing the flute for a longer time will reduce the dryness that you are describing and help generate more accurate sound.
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jaybeemusic wrote:
I can't really get much sound at all. and the kan register is just impossible.
how are you supposed to tell if you've done it right if you can't play the flute to test it..... am i crazy?
Jacques
Ideally, I think it helps to be very close to finished before you start lacquering. From there, you can fine tune a little, a lot, or endlessly depending on the flute, your perception and patience. Sometimes you can have very good success with fine tuning and improve a flute dramatically. However, it's still a good practice to have the flute playing well before fine tuning. I think it's more difficult to improve a poor playing flute with fine tuning alone.
jaybeemusic wrote:
how/when do you guys "fine tune" a flute. Is it before or after the laquer.
Jacques
I fine tune sometimes before the lacquer with very little smears of ji and sometimes during the lacquering. But always after the major bore work is done.
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