My son is saving up (possibly) to order an Olwell flute. He is looking for a good wooden flute that has that rich lower end Irish flute players like. If it has keys all the better but price and time seem to dictate a keyless flute.
To get this kind of flute are there any options to waiting a long period of time and spending ooodles of $$$. NOTE:I’m a fretted string guy and am clueless about flutes…
Your son ought to check out John Gallagher flutes as well if he hasn’t already - another maker from West Virginia who does AMAZING work. Really fantastic instruments.
http://www.tallgrasswinds.com/JohnGallagher.html
Ben
Well the wait varies by maker. So does the price, but he will still have to spend a lot. If he wants the richer lower end he probably wants a Pratten style Flute. Does he already play?
I think you should check out www.irishflutestore.com
Let Doc know what you’re looking for and he can direct you.
He plays all the flutes himself, so he could be very helpful, and no wait. 
M
If he wants an Olwell, he either has to wait (12-14 months for a keyless), pay through the nose, or get very lucky. The Olwell will be worth it, though.
I agree that John Galagher does fine work and would be a good alternative.
I disagree that he would want/need a Pratten-style flute for a rich lower octave.
You’re in Baltimore, is your son, too? It’s a bit of a hike (4 hours), but he might want to visit Mr. Olwell and/or Mr. Gallagher. He might get lucky and be at the shop when a good restored flute is available. Speaking of which, check out the flutes David Migoya has available in this thread:
One option is to buy a cheaper flute to learn on while
one waits for the Olwell–these are worth the wait.
If you are interested, I have some good flutes I
can sell inexpensively–not as good as the best
but good to learn on. One of these can be resold
when the Olwell arrives, however your son
may wish to keep it. Ihave too many flutes
now.
Let me know if you havequestions, please.
You can send me a private message, see
the top of the board. Jim
Here’s another vote to check in with Doc Jones over at the Irish Flute Store (see below). Patrick has had, does have, and seems to regularly come up with some really nice used instruments as well generally having some new ones. His prices are fair all the way to being a bargain, at times. And you can’t deal with a better human being.
jim d
The answer to all questions…
I’ve spoken with Doc in a previous purchase and he was indeed great to work with. I will try to call him tomorrow. Patrick did invite us down to his shop. I just have to find the time to do that trip. We are in Baltimore. My son is fairly new to flute but is a mean whistler and is taking occasional lessons in flute from Elliott Grasso. He is progressing quickly 
So where exactly is “The Vatican of Fluthiery?” (IE Olwell’s shop?)
Why the heck has nobody mentioned Mr. Dave Copley yet? Short waiting list, moderate prices and the heck of a flute. Seems Mr. Copley just isn’t “hip” enough nowadays? I have had a wonderful 6-key of his make for over 1 year now and it’s still getting better and better (well, I am getting better at it, to be correct).
His website is at www.celticlands.com
I try to mention Dave Copley’s flutes everytime this kind of thread comes up here and on ‘thesession.org’ - can’t see how I missed this one… Anyway, I have an unkeyed Copley, had it for a few months, just starting to get it to rasp nicely in the lower register. Great flute for the money and hardly any wait new, and wasn’t someone on this board selling a keyed one on ebay a while back? Don’t think it sold so maybe worth checking out.
Pratten style Flutes tend to have a richer bottom octave in general. As we all know it is really more the player.
Massie’s Mill, Virginia. About a 45 minute drive southwest of Charlottesville off of Rt 29. Top floor of an old 2-story bank building. No running water, no air conditioning, but he does have electricity, phone and dial-up internet access there. Definitely worth a visit if you’re a flute player!
http://www.firescribble.net/flute/makers.html
Gives the names and addresses of many common flute makers.
It always suprises me that Luc Verhoeven isn’t on that list.
http://users.skynet.be/fluiten/index.html
I believe it was my daughter’s first experience in a privy. 
There’s also a beautiful state park a few miles up (and I mean up) the road from there. If we hadn’t had a 3-year-old in tow, we would’ve spent hours hiking around there. I can’t believe in the 10 years I lived in C’Ville that I never made it out therre
Pratten style Flutes tend to have a richer bottom octave in general.
This is a patently false statement. Rudall style and Pratten style flutes (insofar as these terms mean anything in relation to modern flutes) certainly have different characteristics and give players a different experience, but each style is fully capable of a rich bottom octave, assuming it’s a well-made flute to start with.
What the heck does “rich” mean anyway? TO me, that implies strong mid-range harmonics.. . .Kinda like a phat-sounding hollowbody jazz guitar. I’m not even sure that really makes much sense when discussing flutes. My personal experience, anyways
SOmeday some musical engineering nerd will invent an ipod-sized device that will record the timbre of any instrument and convert it to a spectrogram image in easy-to-download .jpeg format, thus making wave forms easy to associate with sounds and giving us some precision in these discussions. Until then. . .
In my experience, anyhow, a booming, honking low D
is a lot more accessible on a Pratten. I’ll tell you what the rich, vibrant low D
sounds like on my Rudall when I can get it.
Agreed
My experience is just the opposite. The fact that people have such disparate experiences as these is, of course, why this discussion happens on a fairly regular basis on this board.