I’m selling my Byrne blackwood D flute with silver rings and a silver lined tuning slide. This is a fine Rudall-style flute. If you do a search of this forum, you will see that it has gotten excellent reviews, both for craftsmanship and playing. It’s in perfect condition, the first owner was meticulous in its care and so am I. I don’t like giving it up, but I have a keyed flute on the way so I’m saving for that. It comes with a very nice Cavallaro nylon roll-up case. I’m asking $1,200 plus shipping. Please PM me if you are interested. Thanks! John.
Saw the other Byrne for sale in the forum. The model I’m selling is his newer medium hole model, which has more volume than his earlier ones. J.
Eilam, I have a D that I got a couple of months ago. It’s the one I’m holding in my avatar! I also have a “new to me” Eb, which is why I ordered the D!
I’ve never tried a Byrne flute, but I would love to! I guess according to what I am learning here, the 2 styles of flute are quite different. (Rudall style vs. Pratten style) But I wouldn’t say that my Hammy suffers from any lack of quality workmanship!
Thanks Loren. The recorder was my first wind instrument, found one laying on the road years ago. Led to playing a Boehm, then whistle, then flute. Don’t need one though, can’t remember how to play the one I have! J.
Some people have inquired about the flute. It’s 21 months old. I’ve had it for three months, the other 18 months someone on the list had it. It’s been well taken care of.
Also, doesn’t Byran still have a waiting list? Last I heard, it was 12 months for a keyless. J.
I guess this is something that’s going to bug me all day until I finally ask it, so I guess I’ll just let my ignorance show…
If the flute is a Rudall style, but has larger holes and more volume, does it still differ significantly from the Pratten or Nicholson style flutes available from most makers? Or is the integral difference so great between Rudall-style and Pratten style that one would notice right away when playing it?
This particular flute has considerably smaller tone holes and a smaller embouchure hole than your Hammy – I actually compared my Byrne with a Hammy at a session a couple of nights ago. So you’d hear a pretty big difference in their sound.
That isn’t to say that the Byrne is quiet. People often think a flute with big tone holes and a big embouchure hole is going to be loud and stand out more in a session. But the key to being heard (or being able to hear yourself) in a session is to have a focused, penetrating tone, which depends more on the player than the flute. That said, if Matt Molloy played a Byrne and then picked up a Hammy, he’d sound louder on the Hammy, because Matt knows how to get a focused sound out of a Pratten style flute. If he played a larger-holed Rudall, you probably wouldn’t hear much difference in terms of volume (the large-holed Rudalls are just as loud as any Pratten, at least in my experience), but you might hear some subtle differences in tone quality. As Loren said here recently, the differences are probably more evident to the player than to the listener.
There is a difference between “volume” and “penetration.” Jimmy Noonan and Christy Barry both play old Rudalls, with small holes and medium sized holes.
These flutes are supposedly quieter than Prattens (viz, Hammys, Olwells). Yet you can hear Noonan’s and Barry’s flutes from the other side of a noisy pub. Their playing carries, and can be heard clearly, over the concertina, banjo, and box.
Measurable volume, in decibels, does not equate to “stand-out” sound in a session. A Pratten may be measureably louder than a Rudall but that in itself doesn’t necessarily mean that you’d hear it more clearly.
