Well have you? Are they better than the poly’s? Prices are darn cheap for wooden flutes anyway. I thought about one in rosewood for a first wooden flute. (As soon as my wallet has recovered from my M&E R&R buy ofcourse).
Ive got a Dixon 3 pc. in rosewood and Im very happy with it. I went for the rosewood because Tony mentioned that that is what he plays. The workmanship is exelent and they look great. They are a relatively small holed flute with an easy reach. Not a session gun but loud enough. Tonel quality is versitile, from reedy to pure, what ever you want. And your right the price is hard to beat. Ive never played the poly Dixon so I cant compare them but I would recomend them for a first wooden flute or an only wooden flute for that matter. They do take a pretty focused air stream if that is a concern.
Tom
Thanks Tom. Thats exactly what I want. What I really want is a pretty good wooden flute to get a feel for the wood and get some experience in how to care for one. I mean if I got a Hammy or Olwell as a first wood flute and it cracked it would be a complete disaster but with a cheaper one I would probably get sad but I could probably live with it. The focused embouchure thing would probably not be a real problem because I’ve spent the last month or so with a 2pc Dixon ABS, and from what folks say, they are harder on that than most. A plus is alway’s that they look beautiful and you say they play nice.
Thanks again for your help.
Another option, maybe, are sweetheart flutes–I
don’t know how much dixon wood flutes cost,
but sweethearts are 250 and rosewood is, I think,
100 more. They’re good startiing wooden flutes.
I like my maple very much and play it a lot.
Minimal care.
By the way, I wouldn’t worry terribly about
cracking or otherwise destroying a good
blackwood flute. Reasonable care is
pretty easy. Best
Hi. I played a 3 piece rosewood Dixon for a year while waiting on my Bryan Byrne blackwood keyless D. It was a great beginner flute, easy to blow, relatively light, and easy to manage in terms of hole size and finger stretch. The tone is quite nice, but not a session honker. If you move up to a Byrne or and Olwell later, you’ll quickly understand why these are considered top tier flutes and priced as such (big difference in tone, volume, tuning and responsiveness). A local standout played my Dixon at a session once and made it sound incredible (much better than I could do!) The last point is mentioned because even a modestly priced flute from a middle tier maker can sound great when blown by a master. Conversely, a finely crafted high end flute won’t sound great in the hands of the casual novice. Based on my experience, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend a call or email Tony (he’s a great, great guy). He’ll get a 3 piece rosewood to you in a few weeks. In the meantime, if you see this as a long term pursuit, get on the waiting list for a finely crafted flute (Byrne, Olwell, Grinter, etc.). You’ll slowly climb the learning curve while you wait (easily a year or more) and be well positioned to appreciate the higher end instrument when it finally arrives.
Best Wishes,
Matt McCullough
I need more opinions. You can’t be the only ones who have experience with these flutes. But thanks for really good rewievs guy’s. I’ll probably buy one of those when the time comes but it would be fun to hear from others as well. 