Pre-bound?

Living here on the temperate west coast of Canada, I prefer to have my shakuhachi naked, binding only if and when needed.

Thanks Erin. My I ask what your reasons are for preferring no bindings?

Need for bindings is determined by climate and exposure to dry heat. If it's temperate and humid you don't need precautionary bindings.

You forgot "artificial" climates like AC or heat.

so far i got the feeling from my flutes that bamboos are better used to the climate where they grow at. for example flutes i have made from local bamboo (verity of madake) here in israel didnt crack at all for few years now, while some flutes i got from japan cracked badly.

generally i dont see a need to bind if not needed, but i do think that when there is even a hairline crack, a binding is well needed.

I surely do not want my flutes pre-bound.
First of all, I can't see why begin to cure a desease if it is not there.
Some of my favourite flutes have cracked and then bound... and I find the vibration in the flute very different than before it got bound.
I do also have a flute that is bound which is absolutely fine.... So perhaps not all will change that much after binding - but I rather only do it if necessary.

Jon, as mentioned by Brian, if the climate doesn't require it, then less is more when it comes to the flute's state.

And as Kiku says, if its not needed, why add it.

As for AC and heat, we don't have AC and, in the location and condo that I have been living, very rarely use heat. That said, of the dozen or so flutes I have owned, only two have cracked, tiny hairline cracks, while I owned them. Thankfully I have a few very skilled shakuhachi pals who help me when one of my flutes is in distress. Both flutes that developed minor cracks were bound by my shaku pals within days of me noticing the crack.

No thanks, I don't want my Jinashi bound either - if it's bound when the culm comes out of the ground - then fine. If not, then I'd prefer to keep it as natural as possible.

Thank you for explaining your circumstances and choice, I appreciate it.

I am not for or against pre-bindings or wanting to personally reason one way or another. It is something that I noticed had not been discussed as of yet and was curious what other people thought about it based on their unique circumstances and or preferences.

As a maker, I suppose it is good to offer potential buyers a flute to be bound. Some people are extremely worried and other do live in climate circumstances where it would be wise.
But fun to see that actually people prefer it not to be bound if they don't live in extreme dry conditions. I didn't know that. So thans for doing these polls. Fun to follow!

In the winter we have minus 30 Celsius and heat with wood in our old house, everything gets very dry. Fall and summer can be very humid in periods. I decided to have my flute bound before it was sent to me. I do not regret, one year later I met a japanes here in Norway, and his flutes had one centimeter wide craks on his bamboo flute, that came the first year he was in Norway (which was 40 years ago).

Here in Australia we have the opposite - Heat. Sorry I need to qualify this to, 'where I live in Australia' we have heat, and lots of it but, it's not as humid as other parts, although we can get rapid fluctuations. I use humidipaks (from Monty) at the foot of my flute bags as a precautionary measure against humidity fluctuation. My experience to date has been that these effectively keep humidity to about 40 percent.

That's what I meant by dry heat. Here in Tasmania we don't have heat or air conditioning most of the year. But certainly when I lived in NYC and Milwaukee they were more susceptible to cracking. Still I'd prefer to have them bound after they crack than before. The nature of the crack also determines the binding required. Some, like Frankenschwantz need serious binding!

Digging around the net I found this on shakuhachi.com from Monty on precautionary bindings:

" While the precision cast bore technology along with research and experiments I have conducted in stabilization of bamboo have done much to inhibit cracking, only the time-tested method of tightly binding the flute will insure against this possibility. Tai Hei Shakuhachi is the only instrument of its kind to offer a lifetime guarantee against splitting if bound at the time of purchase.

Objections to binding are usually based on aesthetic considerations, some folks preferring the natural beauty of the bamboo to be uninterrupted by obtrusive black bands. A few players do not like the feel of the bindings, sitting above the level of the bamboo surface, on their fingers. These objections are most often overcome with practical considerations and the proven effectiveness of binding to protect again splitting. "