| These are some very simple things you
can do to take care of your flute. With a little time and
love it will respond to your kindness and play for you for
many years to come.
Assembly tips:
When assembling never shove the joints into one another.
The head joint and body should be rotated together; and
as the joints go together they should be turned in opposite
directions from one another. This will keep the head joint
from being bent and getting out of round. The foot joint
is put together using the same technique. With the foot
joint in your right hand and the main body in the left,
put your right thumb on the low C# key, close it and gently
rotate the parts together. Do not wiggle or use force, the
sleeve your putting the foot joint onto will go out of round.
Cleaning Tips:
Use a cloth with denatured alcohol on it and clean both
the inside and outside of where the joints go together,
0000 steel wool can also be used to keep the oxidation and
tarnish from building up. This oxidation will make it difficult
for you to put your instrument together. The cleaning rod
in your case serves two purposes. It is used to clean the
inside of your flute after use with a small absorbent cloth
that is put through the oval hole at one end of the rod.
How this cloth is put on is important because if it is too
large it bind up inside and get stuck. Thread the cloth
through the hole with some material over the end and twirl
the cloth down the length of the rod. Having done this swab
the inside of the flute to clean after playing.
Setting Intonation:
At one end of the rod there will a line one the rod about
3/4 of an inch from the end. This is used to set the intonation
by placing the rod up the inside of the head joint and against
the cork assembly that is inside the head joint. This line
will be visible when you look in the embouchure hole and
should in the center. If to far to the left the flute will
be flat, if too far to the right you will be sharp. If flat,
unscrew the head crown slightly and push in about 1/8 of
an inch at a time until the line is in the center of the
embouchure hole. If sharp take your tuning rod or better
a wooden dowel about the size of a drumstick and push gently
until the line is in the center. This can also be done by
turning the head crown clockwise. Then check to see whether
the head joint cork is still airtight by putting your thumb
over the embouchure hole and sucking on the open end of
the flute. This should hold a firm suction If not now is
the time to take it to the repairman because it means that
the head joint cork needs replacing or the lip plate needs
to be resoldered.
General Maintenance:
A little oil in the joints where the keys fit together
every two or three months will go a long way in keeping
the mechanism working smoothly. The oil should be of a medium
consistency (sewing machine oil for instance) and only one
drop should be used at each joint where the key butts up
against the post or against other keys. ( Bb-A or F-E combinations)
Do not use silver polish! It gets in the pads and joints
of the mechanism causing the pads to disintegrate and rods
and screws to rust. Using a chamois cloth or a Shino polishing
cloth to take off the fingerprints. Leave those adjusting
screws alone unless you have a real good idea of what you're
doing!
Keep the music alive and if you have any questions contact
me.
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