A Tale of Two Head Joints

Since I’ve started playing again, I joined the Flute Forum Facebook group. I love reading all of the posts about actual flutes on Flute Forum. Someone mentioned a gold riser in a post and I suddenly remembered - I have a gold riser. Or at least, I used to. I play on a Miyazawa 401 heavy wall flute. I loved my Miyazawa when I got it in 2002 as a high schooler. I could feel the super fast action as I burned through scales faster now than ever before. I was so privileged to play on such a professional instrument and so privileged to be from a family that could afford to pay for a professional-level flute for a teenager. My Miyazawa also had a gold riser on the head joint. After a couple years, I wanted to change my sound. I was in music school by then and playing extremely well, but, from what I remember I wanted my sound to be bigger and darker. Also there was peer pressure. My flute was sterling silver but many of my peers were playing on gold or aurumite f...