Robert Bigio

Handmade flutes and headjoints
in wood and precious metals

Stoppers and crowns
Above: Blackwood crown and Delrin stopper.

Above right: Zirconium crowns. The left one has been heat-treated to produce a beautiful, deep black.

Right: Zirconium stopper.

A simple, cheap and easy-to-install improvement to any flute headjoint. Simply remove the crown and stopper from your headjoint, fit the new stopper, fit the new crown. The difference in sound and response is astonishing.

The stoppers are made either of Delrin (a hard plastic), or of zirconium. The crowns are made of African Blackwood (also known as Grenadilla). Both stoppers and crowns are held in place with an O-ring. Zirconium crowns are also now available, both in a natural colour and heat-treated to a beautiful deep mirror black.

Flute players are amazed (and I continue to be amazed) how the sound of a flute changes when these gadgets are fitted. Players who use them have said their flutes have become louder, smoother and more responsive.

Easy to fit
Fitting is easy. Simply unscrew the original crown and push out the original stopper using the tool supplied. The tool is hollow and will apply pressure to the stopper itself, not to the screw. Next, put the new stopper in the headjoint and push it into position with the tool. The three lines on the tool will help you find the correct position. Finally, push the new crown into position. The whole job takes just a minute.

The stoppers will fit almost any headjoint, but the crowns must be made to measure. I need a measurement of the inside of the top of your headjoint (the crown end). Any repair person or engineer will be able to do this for you in seconds using a vernier caliper.
Why do they work? I'm honestly not sure. One suggestion is that the space between the stopper and crown (which is normally filled with a cork) acts as a vibration chamber. Another suggestion is that the stopper, which is short, light and held in place only by the O-ring, vibrates with the air column in the flute. The response of the flute will change if the crown is removed, or if the little hole in the crown is plugged, or if the space between the stopper and crown is filled in. I have even noticed a change in the sound and response of a flute when I have fitted a crown made of a lighter wood. (It wasn't as good.) I have now made crowns in many different materials. Zirconium has been particularly successful. 

David Symington's article. In a recent issue of the British Flute Society magazine, Pan, David Symington published an article describing some stoppers I made for him in over a dozen materials from aluminium to zirconium. This article has now been published on the Web, on Larry Krantz's site: 

http://www.larrykrantz.com/stopper.htm

Prices (in pounds Sterling)

African Blackwood crown with Delrin stopper: 35.00

African Blackwood crown with zirconium stopper: 75.00

Zirconium crown and zirconium stopper: 150.00

Postage worldwide: 2.00

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Now available in the USA from The Flute Center of New York
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