This flute has found a new home. Thanks to all who expressed interest!
Ming
What’s an Aquila, you say? Aquila was a bright young woman who was apprenticed to Casey Burns some 15 or 20 years ago (when he was still in Oregon). Neither of us knew her by any other name. That many years ago (I forget just how many now) I commissioned her to make me a D flute to replace the Sweetheart rosewood flute that I had developed an allergy to. One day she came up to Seattle with six flutes in various timbers that she’d cranked out. This one was the pick of the litter. It’s made of a type of Honduran rosewood (says Casey), which for some reason I am not allergic to. From the size of the bore and the holes I’m guessing this is a Rudallesque model but at the time if you’d said Rudall & Rose to me I’d have thought it was the name of a pub, so I didn’t know to ask. It looks pretty spartan, but the ring at the end of the head joint, salvaged from the barrel joint of a Bb clarinet, is a nice touch (having been a clarinet player myself). It has a longish tuning tenon and plays right on pitch pulled out 1.5mm cold, maybe another mm out when I and the flute are warmed up. The low D is pitched a little low as one would expect, and the F# and G are slightly sharp. Cnat cross fingers nicely, G# is better half-holed than cross-fingered. There’s a little bit of road rash on either end, and a hairline crack in the head joint socket that hasn’t changed in at least 5 years now (that’s when I first noticed it; who knows how long it’d been there?) that doesn’t have any effect on the playability of the flute. I like the tone of this flute, sweet but with a reasonably strong low end. I have no trouble being heard in a pub session. I’m only selling it to help finance a keyed flute. Yeah, right. I’m asking $160, which will pay for a little more than half of a key on a Burns. Price includes the nearly new Cavallaro roll-up case. I really think it’s worth more, but would feel better just knowing that it was making some poor, deserving, aspiring wooden flute player happy. Please pm me if interested. See pics below.
Please note that although this flute was made under Casey’s tutelage, it does not have his name on it and does not reflect his standards for workmanship or design, then or now.
Ming (in Seattle)
The foot joint is original but was made from a different piece of stock because of a machining mishap, IIRC.
Close-up of the “road rash” mentioned above. In real life the flute is darker than these pictures, and these dings are harder to see.
Close-up of the crack. It’s there, I swear! (It’s at about 1 o’clock in this picture)
The case is black as can be. This picture was taken with natural light on an overcast day and for some reason it looks gray here.