Does anyone know where to buy a wooden flute from.It can't be too expensive, but not completely crap. I just have a metal yamaha flute, but I want to get that really nice tone, so any tips on flute playing will also be welcome
There's a great range at hobgoblin in Oxford Road Manchester.
I got a real beauty there in the days before it was hobgoblin.
You might look at their website, which is probably something like www.hobgoblin.co.uk
If you do get there - have a go on the glass flute just for the heck of it - its got a lovely sound, but you just couldn't take a glass flute to a session, could you.
A GLASS flute??? Cool, don't think I could ever have one though- and espicially not one of friends. The other day she dropped her flute on a bodhran, so it's now a semitone lower than it used to be and kind of banana shaped.
I live in the North-west, and Manchester's only about 2 hours drive away, so I'llhave a look!
Hello Starlet
Before buying a wooden flute you should search for informations on the web : If you play with a yamaha steel flute, i think you need a boehm-system flute (like in classical music). I can help you giving that to you :
You'll have a lot of informations here. But pay attention to the two systems of the flute : the boehm-system flute, which got a lot of keys (very complex) and generally made in steel;
and the simple-system flute which got the same fingering as the tin whistle (6 holes).
I have forgotten anything : if you want to play the wooden flute as fluently as matt molloy or paul mcgrattan, i think you should listen to them and try to do the same as they do!
I really like Sam Murray's Flutes. Originally from Belfast, but living in Galway now. Sam makes "Great" flutes, but as they are in high demand, there is obviously going to be a wait on them.
Hey Starlet, get what I'm getting! A Casey Burns Folk Flute! $250, and it comes highly recomended by Grey Larsen, as well as lots of people on the session.
If you want to get a practice flute first, Casey Burn's folk flute will be a good choice. But, you've been playing the metal one for years, so it seems you can have a more "advanced" one.
I've got Mark Hoza's one and really love it. It has lovely tone and very attractive looks. The link to his website is the last one listed on Mattaeus's comment. Mine is a 3 joint model for especially for small hands. It was less than $400. No tuning slide, but I can alter the pitch. Of course, there're many other great wooden flute makers, but Hoza's ones are most inexpensive as far as I know. The second cheapest one is Casey Burn's keyless D flute.
Regarding the comment, "I just have a metal yamaha, but I want to get that really nice tone"...
I also "just have" a metal yamaha, and like you, am dying to get a wooden flute. The tone of the wooden flute is unsurpassed,IMO, and I once thought I'd never be able to sound like one on my metal flute.
However, I've recently come to think of the silver flute in a different light: though not quite as woody (obviously) in tone, it can come very close--with *lots* of practice. People have disparaged the silver flute for not having good tone, but I think it's because they haven't heard a good player play it! After all, look what Joanie Madden has done with it! (if you haven't heard her-get one of her albums immediately!)
In essence what I'm trying to say is this: the silver flute is *not* a second class instrument--practice, practice, practice!!
I got a very nice wooden flute 3 months ago having played (and still play) silver (not steel!) boehm for some years. I use them for different music - classical,modern and jazz on the silver and learning trad on the wooden.Trad is not so good on the silver as all the keys go clatter clatter clatter - it depends what you are wanting to play but a compromise might be to get a wooden head joint for your silver flute. These make an enormous and effective difference to the tone and are available through most good flute shops - to fin a stockist near you and the right one for your flute look up on the web through google.
For a first simple system go with polymer wood is really hard to take care of I play polymer flutes but Bassoons are made of wood and that is my first and best instrument to plasy I know about caring for wood. Try M & E flutes I have heard good things wait idea idea idea get a Dixon one piece flute learn the fingerings and then move on to other things these Dixons usually sell for about $30 USD so that has to be in your price range. Why one piece? So you can tune yourself to a tuner and play in tune perfectly before dealing with a tuning slide.
The only problem with the cheaper one piece polymer flutes is that they are cylindrical which usually leads to a flat upper range and a larger finger spacing. Also, the depth of the chimney isn't as good. Unless you're really unsure if you want to play trad, and since you already play flute, I'd look at something more expensive.
Now Tony Dixon's 3 piece conical is a real trad style flute, but if you prefer wood one of Tony's wooden flutes (if he's making them again) or Casey Burns' folk flute are good starters. Tony will make the polymer flute with a slide if you ask him - it's not on his webpage the last time I checked, but in an email exchange with him a while back he said he just started making the slide head as an option.
If you want to spend a tad more, I really like my Seery.
As I said yesterday before it was removed ( someone does not really want a true opinion )
wooden flutes can be bought for as little as £70 with no keys in rosewood, alittle dearer crocuswood & darer again ebonywood with no keys
& again with 5 keys in crocusw. & ebony from http://www.boorinwoodmusic.com
I in that writeup I said that I thought that people who tried to make beginners buy the beginner instrument equivalent to the learner driver starting with a Rolls R. or a BMW estate car tends to put would be students into thinking " I can't afford that so I'll leave it ". Some people never stood behind a counter & only see life through tinted glases, not as it is
J. B.
This is not my experience. Perhaps I have just been lucky.
I have a blackwood flute these past 8 years and have no trouble at all. I rub it with almond oil outside and in when I feel like it - probably once a month inside and thrice a year on the outside.
You might try eBay. mate of mine got an absolute steal on a lovely 'Pratten' style flute for only a couple of hundred quid. Even if it wasn't the greatest instrument in the world he could sell it on for 500.
JB - probably you posted after login timeout, and then didn't check that the post had appeared. If in doubt, always copy your message before you post it - then if it doesn't appear, you need to log on again and just paste into the reply box and post again. You kid yourself if you think that what you say above is so controversial that the webmeister is likely to have deleted it.
Back on the wooden flute issue - the one I got cost me £120. I was offered £1200 for it a few weeks later by a dealer (who presumably knew he could sell it at a profit above that figure).
But you win on the swings and lose on the roundabouts - I also once bought a set of Burleigh pipes - what a waste of cash that was. (In my personal opinion, without prejudice, etc etc......)
its true that you can make a boehm flute sound like whatever you want it to be, its all about listening to the kind of thing you want to copy, i think it works in the same way you start to pick up an accent in a different area/country.
if you're keys clatter, it means you're flute needs a service...., i played a dave williams flute the other day and thought it was great, the best thing to do is try out other peoples, at sessions/festivals etc.
A wood headjoint for a silver flute is probably going to cost you more than a good keyless six-hole flute, and will give you less flexibility of sound without giving you what you really need which is the fingerholes. in that way an open hole boehm flute is better than a closed one, cause you can feather notes and bend notes.
a nice thing about a wooden flute is the fact that the holes are different sizes, which gives character to each note, the whole point of the boehm flute is that every note should be perfectly even, (and in-tune....)
but i'm going to stop writing now because i'm even boring myself...
hope you find a good flute..
Buying a wooden flute
Buying a wooden flute
Does anyone know where to buy a wooden flute from.It can't be too expensive, but not completely crap. I just have a metal yamaha flute, but I want to get that really nice tone, so any tips on flute playing will also be welcome
# Posted on June 2nd 2004 by Folkie Junkie
Re: Buying a wooden flute
Starlet - do you ever get to Manchester?
There's a great range at hobgoblin in Oxford Road Manchester.
I got a real beauty there in the days before it was hobgoblin.
You might look at their website, which is probably something like www.hobgoblin.co.uk
If you do get there - have a go on the glass flute just for the heck of it - its got a lovely sound, but you just couldn't take a glass flute to a session, could you.
Dave
# Posted on June 2nd 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: Buying a wooden flute
A GLASS flute??? Cool, don't think I could ever have one though- and espicially not one of friends. The other day she dropped her flute on a bodhran, so it's now a semitone lower than it used to be and kind of banana shaped.
I live in the North-west, and Manchester's only about 2 hours drive away, so I'llhave a look!
# Posted on June 2nd 2004 by Folkie Junkie
Buying a wooden flute---really
Hello Starlet
Before buying a wooden flute you should search for informations on the web : If you play with a yamaha steel flute, i think you need a boehm-system flute (like in classical music). I can help you giving that to you :
http://www.firescribble.net/flute/
http://www.harpanddragon.com
http://www.sunreed.com/irishflutes.htm
http://www.caseyburnsflutes.com
http://www.mcgee-flutes.com
http://www.songsea.com/natamflt.htm
http://www.standingstones.com/irflute.html
http://www.woodenflutemaker.com
You'll have a lot of informations here. But pay attention to the two systems of the flute : the boehm-system flute, which got a lot of keys (very complex) and generally made in steel;
and the simple-system flute which got the same fingering as the tin whistle (6 holes).
so Good bye, and good luck...
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by Mattaeus
Re: Buying a wooden flute---really
I have forgotten anything : if you want to play the wooden flute as fluently as matt molloy or paul mcgrattan, i think you should listen to them and try to do the same as they do!
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by Mattaeus
Re: Buying a wooden flute
I really like Sam Murray's Flutes. Originally from Belfast, but living in Galway now. Sam makes "Great" flutes, but as they are in high demand, there is obviously going to be a wait on them.
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by Murrough
Re: Buying a wooden flute
Thanks!
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by Folkie Junkie
Re: Buying a wooden flute
Hey Starlet, get what I'm getting! A Casey Burns Folk Flute! $250, and it comes highly recomended by Grey Larsen, as well as lots of people on the session.
http://www.caseyburnsflutes.com/ff.php
-Max
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by Max Becher
Re: Buying a wooden flute
If you want to get a practice flute first, Casey Burn's folk flute will be a good choice. But, you've been playing the metal one for years, so it seems you can have a more "advanced" one.
I've got Mark Hoza's one and really love it. It has lovely tone and very attractive looks. The link to his website is the last one listed on Mattaeus's comment. Mine is a 3 joint model for especially for small hands. It was less than $400. No tuning slide, but I can alter the pitch. Of course, there're many other great wooden flute makers, but Hoza's ones are most inexpensive as far as I know. The second cheapest one is Casey Burn's keyless D flute.
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by slainte
Re: Buying a wooden flute
You might me able to get a good deal on a Grinter from some junkie b*astard on the streets of Wellington, NZ.
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by Kerri Brown
Re: Buying a wooden flute
Regarding the comment, "I just have a metal yamaha, but I want to get that really nice tone"...
I also "just have" a metal yamaha, and like you, am dying to get a wooden flute. The tone of the wooden flute is unsurpassed,IMO, and I once thought I'd never be able to sound like one on my metal flute.
However, I've recently come to think of the silver flute in a different light: though not quite as woody (obviously) in tone, it can come very close--with *lots* of practice. People have disparaged the silver flute for not having good tone, but I think it's because they haven't heard a good player play it! After all, look what Joanie Madden has done with it! (if you haven't heard her-get one of her albums immediately!)
In essence what I'm trying to say is this: the silver flute is *not* a second class instrument--practice, practice, practice!!
-Jonathan
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by jdave
Re: Buying a wooden flute
I got a very nice wooden flute 3 months ago having played (and still play) silver (not steel!) boehm for some years. I use them for different music - classical,modern and jazz on the silver and learning trad on the wooden.Trad is not so good on the silver as all the keys go clatter clatter clatter - it depends what you are wanting to play but a compromise might be to get a wooden head joint for your silver flute. These make an enormous and effective difference to the tone and are available through most good flute shops - to fin a stockist near you and the right one for your flute look up on the web through google.
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by cariad
Re: Buying a wooden flute
For a first simple system go with polymer wood is really hard to take care of I play polymer flutes but Bassoons are made of wood and that is my first and best instrument to plasy I know about caring for wood. Try M & E flutes I have heard good things wait idea idea idea get a Dixon one piece flute learn the fingerings and then move on to other things these Dixons usually sell for about $30 USD so that has to be in your price range. Why one piece? So you can tune yourself to a tuner and play in tune perfectly before dealing with a tuning slide.
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by Unseen122
Re: Buying a wooden flute
The only problem with the cheaper one piece polymer flutes is that they are cylindrical which usually leads to a flat upper range and a larger finger spacing. Also, the depth of the chimney isn't as good. Unless you're really unsure if you want to play trad, and since you already play flute, I'd look at something more expensive.
Now Tony Dixon's 3 piece conical is a real trad style flute, but if you prefer wood one of Tony's wooden flutes (if he's making them again) or Casey Burns' folk flute are good starters. Tony will make the polymer flute with a slide if you ask him - it's not on his webpage the last time I checked, but in an email exchange with him a while back he said he just started making the slide head as an option.
If you want to spend a tad more, I really like my Seery.
Eric
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by Jayhawk
Re: Buying a wooden flute
As I said yesterday before it was removed ( someone does not really want a true opinion )
wooden flutes can be bought for as little as £70 with no keys in rosewood, alittle dearer crocuswood & darer again ebonywood with no keys
& again with 5 keys in crocusw. & ebony from http://www.boorinwoodmusic.com
I in that writeup I said that I thought that people who tried to make beginners buy the beginner instrument equivalent to the learner driver starting with a Rolls R. or a BMW estate car tends to put would be students into thinking " I can't afford that so I'll leave it ". Some people never stood behind a counter & only see life through tinted glases, not as it is
J. B.
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by boorinwood
Re: Buying a wooden flute
"wood is really hard to take care of" - ?
This is not my experience. Perhaps I have just been lucky.
I have a blackwood flute these past 8 years and have no trouble at all. I rub it with almond oil outside and in when I feel like it - probably once a month inside and thrice a year on the outside.
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: Buying a wooden flute
You might try eBay. mate of mine got an absolute steal on a lovely 'Pratten' style flute for only a couple of hundred quid. Even if it wasn't the greatest instrument in the world he could sell it on for 500.
# Posted on June 3rd 2004 by breandan
Re: Buying a wooden flute
JB - probably you posted after login timeout, and then didn't check that the post had appeared. If in doubt, always copy your message before you post it - then if it doesn't appear, you need to log on again and just paste into the reply box and post again. You kid yourself if you think that what you say above is so controversial that the webmeister is likely to have deleted it.
cheers
Dave
# Posted on June 4th 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: Buying a wooden flute
Back on the wooden flute issue - the one I got cost me £120. I was offered £1200 for it a few weeks later by a dealer (who presumably knew he could sell it at a profit above that figure).
But you win on the swings and lose on the roundabouts - I also once bought a set of Burleigh pipes - what a waste of cash that was. (In my personal opinion, without prejudice, etc etc......)
Dave
# Posted on June 4th 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: Buying a wooden flute
its true that you can make a boehm flute sound like whatever you want it to be, its all about listening to the kind of thing you want to copy, i think it works in the same way you start to pick up an accent in a different area/country.
if you're keys clatter, it means you're flute needs a service...., i played a dave williams flute the other day and thought it was great, the best thing to do is try out other peoples, at sessions/festivals etc.
A wood headjoint for a silver flute is probably going to cost you more than a good keyless six-hole flute, and will give you less flexibility of sound without giving you what you really need which is the fingerholes. in that way an open hole boehm flute is better than a closed one, cause you can feather notes and bend notes.
a nice thing about a wooden flute is the fact that the holes are different sizes, which gives character to each note, the whole point of the boehm flute is that every note should be perfectly even, (and in-tune....)
but i'm going to stop writing now because i'm even boring myself...
hope you find a good flute..
# Posted on June 6th 2004 by philippe