Handmade Head Joints

The Head of a Flute is like the bow of a violin

The Head Joint works like the Bow of the Violin. The flutist uses the air jet directed from between their lips to form a complex stream of air that excites the cylinder of air inside the Center Joint to vibrate back and forth with a sound similar to the human voice. The size and shape of the “Embouchure Hole” in the “Lip Plate” will make the tone of the flute either bright or dull depending on the shape of the hole and the sharpness of the Blowing Edge. The variety of expressiveness will be either more wide and bold, or else somewhat narrow and limited depending on the Height of the Wall (or depth of the hole).

We have an “Array” of 16 Argentium Silver Head Joints that a flutist can use to explore the acoustical and expressive differences between Head Joints that are made to conform to our “Standards” of maximum or minimum dimensions. We also have a precision measurement Gauge that we use to check the actual sizes of each of the four dimensions. Flutists can buy one of our Embouchure Gauges to determine the actual sizes of each of the four critical dimensions of their own flute’s Head Joint, and then play the Landell Head Joint that closely matches their flute’s head joint. Then using one of the other Heads in the Array, we can change just one of those dimensions, and learn if that change is better or worse. Then we can choose another Head from the Array that offers another change while keeping everything else the same, and determine if that plays better or worse for the flutist. The experiment will continue like this until the player can find the best head joint that fits his or her physical abilities and comes closer to their desired quality of sound concept. This process is similar to the work of the ophthalmologists who use the same approach to find the perfect lens prescription for a new pair of glasses, where reading the letters from the lowest line on the screen is similar to making the best quality of sound with the least effort and make a pleasing flute sound.

Landell Headjoints on Youtube

Please watch and listen to three different headjoints made from Argentium Silver, Gold and Titanium on my Youtube Channel.

1. Intro & Interview

2. Argentium Silver Headjoint

3. Gold Headjoint

4. Titanium Headjoint

Innovations

We know that the material of any flute has a distinctive influence on the quality of the tone. We have worked with all of the precious metals in various combinations, and we have also worked with Titanium.Any combination of precious metals is possible except the more popular ones where they have made a layer of one metal on top of another metal under it. Using different metals like this is like using two different kinds of bread on a sandwich, which totally degrades the qualities of both without offering anything really new. Likewise, using silver or gold plating over a base metal such as nickel is only decorating an inexpensive metal flute with a shiny skin, and that doesn’t do anything to improve the sound of the flute.Furthermore, the solid metal flute will last far longer than the plated variety without the expense of totally disassembling the flute just to replace the worn parts of the plating. 

However, we learned that the material of the riser is very important in terms of the tone quality. When we make a head joint with a gold riser, we don’t braze the gold riser to the inside surface of the lip plate, where the air jet will be directed to a silver lip plate.  I invented the “Gold Ring” design for the Riser, where the top surface of the Riser protrudes through the silver lip plate all around the embouchure hole. Thus when looking down on the hole, you can see a “Gold Ring” all around the embouchure hole, and the blowing edge is Gold – not Silver.  Many people have found that this design adds a little depth to the tone of a silver head joint, which is very subtle and beautiful. Here is a drawing of that design.We have used both 14k Gold and Platinum for this design with great success.

Titanium Head Joints

Titanium is a very hard metal similar to that of steel, and the appearance is also similar to steel. But the weight of this metal is only HALF the weight of silver, which makes it very comfortable to play especially for long rehearsals or practice sessions. We offer an all Titanium head joint which can be used on any flute of any metal, but the fitting process can be time consuming and difficult. This should be done at the Landell studio workshop where we have all the tools necessary for this work. We find that a titanium head joint on a good hand made flute will make the flute feel like a “Formula One” race car, because it speaks much more quickly than a flute made of any other material. It also has a much richer blend of overtones. We have done a series of experiments at the University of Vermont’s Physic Lab with a professor who did the measurements. I made a flute blowing apparatus that was used to make the sound mechanically, and we first measured the silver flute and then the titanium flute, and we compared the response time and the overtones for each instrument. Here is a copy of the Report by Professor Wu, which he published in a pier reviewed journal for acoustical physicists. Download a copy of the Flyer Here. I also applied for a US Patent for the use of titanium, and that patent was granted as US Patent Number 6,124,538. I have made one flute with titanium tubing and all the other parts are silver. I am very proud of this flute, and I tell everyone it is my “Master Piece”. Number 1996 for the year it was made.

Materials & Cuts

• All Argentium Silver, Modern Cut, Facet Lip Plate
• All Sterling Silver, Traditional Cut, Smooth Plate
• All 14k Rose Gold, Modern Cut, Smooth Lip Plate
• All Titanium, Modern Cut, Facet Lip Plate
• Grenidilla Wood, Silver Tenon -- Demo (Not for sale, but available by commission).