Bamboo flutes

Irish Flute
1

Hello everyone. With the various makers of bamboo flutes, I would like to know which makers you favor most. Thanks!

2

Haven’t used one myself, or had any particularly good experiences with bamboo flutes in general, but I’ve heard there is a guy named Patrick Olwell who makes one that gets quite good reviews :poke:

Of course these days his production of low end bamboo flutes is especially sporadic… :smiley: though they do come up used on the board every now and again. If you haven’t checked lately here are a couple: https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/fs-ft-olwell-bamboo-d-and-eb-flutes/91856/1

3

I had a bunch of Olwells which I ended up selling. They were lovely flutes to play occasionally, but I found them unsatisfying for playing ITM for any time. The lack of tuning made them impractical for session play, and they just don’t do what I wanted an ITM flute to do. Great flutes, but too valuable to keep and not play. And bamboo… you live in eternal fear of the stuff splitting.

I found the F and G flutes the most satisfactory, the low D was nice for slow stuff, but no real “bang” for dance tunes.

I still have a couple of bamboo bansuris (indian flute) that I enjoy for non-ITM purposes.

4

I bought one of this guy’s flutes at a renaissance festival and thoroughly enjoyed it - until I figured out that I have some sort of allergy to bamboo! His flutes are great and reasonably priced…

Pat

5

Thanks for the replies everyone. I’m not looking at this bamboo flute purchase for ITM, but rather folk music in general. I was just looking for something well in tune - maybe even pentatonic. I do know the troubles with bamboo and climate specs, but I figure most are relatively not too much $$$ and if I’m able to get a year or two with it I’d be ok with that. I’m not too familiar with Olwell bamboo flutes, but I suspect he doesn’t make them anymore?

6

Thanks Pat. Ray’s flutes look like a good possibility…

7

Billy Miller, then:
http://www.windwoodflutes.com/

8

Hey BSFloyd,

For the money I recommend Billy Miller’s bamboo flutes: http://www.windwoodflutes.com/. :thumbsup: He used to contribute to this forum, but I’ve not heard from him in years.

I currently have High D & C, plus an F that are all very good players. Previously I was impressed with his Eb and D flutes and would like to try a Bb.

I’ve had a few of Rob Yards flutes and wasn’t as pleased with them.

Happy Hunting!

9

Forgot to mention that mine was in F and I picked it out of about 10 of them that Rob had at the show, but they all seemed decent to me.

Pat

10

Is Billy Miller still making flutes? I emailed him a couple of times a short while ago and never got a reply from him. I see his website hasn’t been updated in several years.

I’m also looking at flutes made by George Tortorelli (Medicine Wind flutes), and Greg Hunt. Any experience with these makers?

11

I believe Billy M is often traveling, performing and selling flutes at fairs, etc. I think these are really good flutes. It was reported that when Patrick Olwell stopped making cane/bamboo flutes he recommended people try Billy’s flutes. Perhaps not quite as good as Patrick’s (I have one), but very good. Here’s one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlvhMjA7YNk

12

George’s flutes are very, very good. He’s a good guy as well. For the price, you can’t go too wrong. You may have to buy from a few makers to find which works best for you. Lord knows, I’ve spent a lot buying and selling flutes to find the “right one”.

13

Great link, Jim - thanks for that! Billy’s flutes sound nice for sure.

Thanks for the confirmation on George’s flutes, Akiba. Agreed on trying different makers. Luckily, bamboo flutes can be had on the cheap :slight_smile:

14

I want to say thanks for the PM I received regarding bamboo flutes, but when I try to open it it reads that I am not allowed to receive private messages. Maybe because of my low post count?