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April 14, 2006
Another eBay utaguchi repair
Here is a repair on a 1.7 won on an ebay auction. It was listed as a nice antique shakuhachi with a little wear on the blowing edge. The new owner wasn't a shakuhachi player so he contacted me with some questions. After I got it into my hands, I found that it had a deteriorated utaguchi that needed to be replaced. There was also a crack that need to be bound. On top of that, the tuning wasn't so great. None of this was mentioned in the auction.
I started by adding bamboo saw dust mixed with CA glue to build up the area around the blowing edge so that the new utaguchi will have some meat to grab onto. You can see that someone in the past tried to save the utaguchi by applying layers of glue.
After the bamboo dust dried, I filed the front so I could draw a clean line for the new utaguchi shape. It was great to see that there was still a hint of patina under the old crusty glue. I did a Sogawa style inlay from Water Bufalo Horn.
These old flutes are rarely in pitch with Western Hertz but this one also had an extremely sharp Chi so the scale was a bit off. I retuned the Chi hole by adding epoxy resin on the upper part. After the utaguchi was done, I was able to blow into the flute to evaluate the tuning a little more closely. I ended up doing a little spot tuning bring out an over all balanced feel. Sometimes, the bores of old flutes just need a little help to make the entire flute feel like one instrument. Spot tuning can bring about a balance and pull a flute together.
Hear this old flute after the repairs.
Ebay can be a great place to buy instruments. However, please do a little research and ask questions when looking for a shakuhachi. Antique shakuhachi flutes that plays well are very rare AND expensive. I offer a free evaluation service for anyone interested in buying an shakuhachi. You are just responsible for shipping charges.
In the end, even with the cost of the repairs, this person got a beautiful AND functional old shakuhachi at a bargain price. I really enjoy helping old flutes a second life.
Namaste, Perry
Posted by Perry Yung at April 14, 2006 07:25 PM
Comments
nice playing,i found my first shaku flute in a hall way this summer,learned to play it that day.the first note took me all the way back to my first home home.its been many moons. one love Chance
Posted by: chance at December 4, 2006 08:21 PM