Chiff and Fipple Forums

Dear users, I just read your valuable comments and I want to say that I learned a lot. Many thanks.

I'm a wet player. Irish flute, baroque flute, whistle, heck even when I played the clarinet. I've been playing flute for 20 years and don't expect to outgrow it.

I pre-warm the head of whatever I'm playing. A few minutes under my arm warms it up nicely. I swab the head out after about 5 minutes of playing and after another 15. It takes about 15 seconds, and doesn't bother me at all.

If it's significantly impairing your playing, you probably want to use a very small piece of fabric to swab out the embouchure hole too. I need to do that occasionally.

Boxwood is just a little bit absorbent, but that makes a huge difference in condensate buildup. It's much worse in polymer flutes, although those are also harder to warm up.