Are you tired of stellar reviews of Olwell flutes?

Irish Flute
1

Hey Lads:

Thought I’d give you my intial take on the Olwell low Bb flute that sat in China customs for 10 days…and after 2 days of playing it.

First of all, if you’ve never played a low Bb flute, you should. The sonorous and rich tones, the booming vibration of the air under your fingers…some of the very reasons many of us chose the flute in the first place.

This Olwell (#642) is blackwood, keyless, with silver rings and no tuning slide (to save on weight), but you can tune of course with the headjoint position. It has 4 sections, including the long footjoint with vent holes…making this one BIG flute (a thick broomstick?)

The first thing to note on this flute is that the finger holes are not inline with the horozontal axis: the left and right hand holes arc slightly for more ergonomics in playing. Thus the finger reach is not much different than his D-flute.

The most amazing thing about this flute is the playability. I expected much higher air requirements, quieter tones, and less responsiveness in the flute. But not at all. I can play reels at 80-90% of my normal speed on a D-flute without a hitch from the get go. Nice and balanced volume across octaves.

The embouchure hole is smaller than I expected, but classic Olwell…very flexible: easily adjust to harmonic reedy or sweet tones, and (something I’ve never had as much success with on a flute) you can go into that fabulous harmonic area between octaves and stay there while you play, if you get your embouchure right. That’s freaking awesome, especially in a low Bb range of tones. Sends chills up my spine, especially the lowest 2 notes of the second octave–so many harmonics in that space.

Only issues are some minor aestetic issues…some rougher spots in the polishing of the bore, and I need to sand the cork of the large tenon to fit better. But these are fairly standard. I do love a uniformly glass-like bore though. Maybe after oiling it a few times…it was pretty dry when I got it when I noticed this.

Anyway, that’s the scoop. Now I’ve got a cool new flute to take with me to Chiang Mai, Thailand in a couple of days.

Later,
G

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Hey Greg, I don’t suppose there’d be any chance you’ll be heading to Singapore on a minor detour?

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Greg,

Glad to hear your finally got your Olwell Bf.
The way you describe it sounds exactly like my Bf Olwell(rosewood #484).

Aren’t these flutes pure joy to play!

I do have a question for you, though. What kind of case did you get for it? Did you get it from Pat or somewhere else?
When I picked up my Bf, Pat gave me one of his Jean Cavallaro cases. I really like it, but I would like to get a nice hard case if possible. Any help on this would be really appreciated.

Congrats on your Bf. I for one am never tired of hearing about Olwell flutes. Although, if I didn’t have one, I’m sure it would be a different story:-)

Happy holidays everyone!
Garth

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Hi Garth:

I also got the Cavallaro case–pretty nice actually, as I did not expect Pat to have a four section case for the flute. I’ll keep this one for now, and see later about a hard case.

Hey E: Won’t be going to Singapore on this vacation trip, but I’ll be going there pretty frequently in the future. You know Flextronics?

G

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On 2002-12-27 06:14, gcollins wrote:
Hey E: Won’t be going to Singapore on this vacation trip, but I’ll be going there pretty frequently in the future. You know Flextronics?

Hi Greg, nope I havena heard of the company Flextronics but I think its great that you’ll be hanging out here frequently in the future. Don’t forget to drop me an email when this happens! We can get together for a few chunes.