I wanted to share with you a great flute buying experience I had recently. Thanks to a tip from David Migoya I got my hands on a Boosey Pratten Perfected about 6 - 7weeks ago.
As expected the tuning was a bit sharp and I asked Chris Wilkes to make me a replacement head with a differently positioned embochure hole and Chris did a masterful job!!
I received the head today and it is absolutely marvelous, the sound is deep and rich.
I put a quick recording I made tonight of a jig and reel on our website (my apologies to David Migoya since I borrowed his picture of a Boosey as I couldn’t find my camera and his looks exactly like mine).
Have a listen to the sound of that flute by clicking on the flute in the following link:
Sven, I can’t tell you how happy I am that it all worked out on the Pratten!
Sounds really good.
By the way, the photo of mine you borrowed for your website is actually a Hudson-Pratten, not a Boosey-Pratten. Hudson made the first Pratten flutes, then went to Boosey and continued manufacture there (or at the least his forman work).
Chris is indeed a terrific fellow and I don’t doubt he loved working on this flute.
And having a new headpiece can be a wonderful thing, too. I had Pat Owell make a headpiece for a Rudall that I play off and on again, to replace the heavy Patent Head it had. Great stuff.
My own Hudson-Pratten was “revoiced” at the embouchure just a nip (had a rough spot at the tubing edge) by Pat Olwell.
David, agreed your flute is also blockmounted; however otherwise the appearance is virtually the same. at the end of the day these guys had agreed on a design and kept producing the design over the years even after Pratten had passed away.
Unknown is how many Boosey Pratten Perfected simple system flutes were actually produced since the serial numbers did not distinguish between model types, some have estimated around 2,000 at the most, which means any surviving models in good shape are to be treasure for sure.
You’re right, Sven.
The original Hudson-Pratten(perfected) design of 8 keys and off-set toneholes certainly held through the later Hudson production (at least #641 is this way, as is #515…so it’s a guess, but a good one, that they are very much like that up and down the line), save for a couple odd or special flutes Hudson purportedly made.
The early Boosey-Pratten flutes of the 8key models also remained true to the originals, it appears. I own Boosey-Pratten #52xx (a very early one according to the year on the signed certificate…which makes one wonder at what number they started), and it’s style is the same, although it is a small-holed (small-handed instead? holes are more medium to me) model, which seems rare.
Nevertheless, the pillars came in later, although I can’t figure why as many of the Hudson-made Siccama flutes were pillars and not blocks (until the 700-series of Siccama flutes, which had some block-mount, non-Hudson keys).
Frustrating that Boosey did not give separate numbers to the fully-keyed Pratten- Perfected than the 8key (or siccama-type key reworks with ringed tone holes on 1&2). It would have helped.
Someone (Terry McGee, perhaps?) once noted how few Boosey-Pratten flutes there seem to be available as opposed to Monzani, Rudalls and the like. However, their serial numbers still go very high. But whether 2000 is a good number for the 8key models is a guess?
Don’t forget the 8key models of flutes Boosey made in other keys. How many, i don’t know, but they are out there.
Makes us love our Booseys (and our Hudsons!) all the more.
Sadly, the foot joint of my Hudson has developed a tiny crack. My first of all my flutes.
Sigh.
dave
