I was playing my heavy blackwood flute today and lamenting the time it needs to play well and a friend suggested a flute maker called Casey Burns makes a simpler, less fussy wooden flute. Can anyone point me in his direction.
http://www.caseyburnsflutes.com/
Go for the Boxwood Folk flute.
What does this mean exactly?
it’s Aussie for “We have a problem Houston”
Casey Burns makes great flutes, go for it !!!
Casey makes good flutes. I own one of his Folk Flutes (the older 2-piece Mopane version, not the current 3-piece Boxwood) and I love playing it.
But unless there’s something seriously wrong with your current flute, I think that a Burns flute will require just as much practice for a given skill level. The caveat being that if your current flute is a keyed model and by “less fussy” you mean “requires a bit less maintenance” you’d be right - but that would be true of most other good maker’s keyless models as well.
Not to discourage you - if you’re happier with a Burns, you’ll likely play it more and get better faster. And they’re certainly more than “good enough”; much better players than I’m ever likely to be have tried both my flutes (the Burns, and a Cochran R & R model) and sounded brilliant on them.
Hi Allyson,
What make is your blackwood flute? Is it a keyed model? When you say ‘lamenting the time it needs to play well’, do you mean you lament not having enough time for learning to play well?
I have tried a friends Casey Burns mopane two piece. It was a very quiet flute. I think this may be an exception in the case of the Burns folk flute, I was really rather surprised that it was so quiet. On the upside for beginners is that it is a very easy flute to play, as in, it is very easy to form an effective embouchure pretty quickly. It had a very pleasing tone and was nicely balanced from the highest notes I could play down to the bottom D. The only problem with it was that it was not very responsive to being ‘played on the edge’, that is, playing so that you play notes that are about to break into the next octave giving that nice overtone sound.
It wouldn’t be the worst flute you could buy, but at the time I had a Dixon three piece (Delrin/ABS plastic?) which blew the Burns out of the water in every aspect of it’s playing. I am not trying to endorse or put down any of these flutes, this is just what I experienced.
From Casey’s web site “You will find that it is not really necessary to keep the lips in tip top shape to maintain tonal proficiency, due to the forgivingness of this flute.” (Edit: This means - yes, it is designed to be less fussy.)
But it still seems to be taking me an awful lot of time to get ‘playing well’ anywhere in sight ! (Edit: This is supposed to imply - when did anyone say it would be quick ?)
Crossed with Ceili_whistle_man. Well, if this is quiet, the neighbours must be glad it’s what I have.
Well, if you’ve only tried one Burns, and you don’t say how long you had it to get to know it (if people are used to blowing a certain way on their flute, many times they can’t get a good sound from someone else’s withought spending time with them), then passing judgement on to others about them may not be good. Especially considering the overly positive feedback they have received for that model. Sometimes it’s all about how you are able or not able to adapt to a particular embouchure cut, though Folk Flutes are known for being not hard to play. I’ve had two of them-neither were quiet, and the last one was particularly loud-could be my embouchure was capable of more then also, like anyone along the path in playing flute.
Also, most people seem to agree that the Dixon 3 piece flutes are not quite the equal to the Burns Folk Flutes (and in comparison certainly not capable of blowing them out of the water). Of course, every now and then one particular flute might have an edge on another, simply because of the hand cut embouchure. A maker like Casey Burns has cut way too many embouchures to produce bad ones by now. More likely is that you will be getting the benefit of his experience (over 25 years I believe), and getting a very good flute for your money because of it.
It seems hard to find a better flute for the money, in real wood (and especially beautiful Boxwood) than the Folk Flute, so I’d recommend them without hesitation, Allyson, as many do.
PS I sent you a PM (private message) Allyson with some more info.
Has anybody here played a boxwood folk flute?
It would be nice to hear something about it
from a player, especially a comparison with the
old one.
Greenspiderweb,
I shall pick up on the passages you have highlighted in my post, you seem to have a preconceived idea that I am being judgmental:
It was a very quiet flute, yes that is correct, the flute I played was very quiet, I played it louder than my friend who plays it all the time.
When he plays in our session we all have to strain to hear him. Our ears do not lie. And if you read what I typed straight after ‘it was very quiet’, you will see I said that ‘I think this may be an exception in the case of the Burns folk flute, I was really rather surprised that it was so quiet.’
I didn’t need to spend much time playing it to get more volume and tone than my friend did/does. Enough said.
'it was not very responsive to being ‘played on the edge’, what more do I need to say? This flute could not be pushed hard. I don’t know about any other Burns flute, just the one I experienced.
‘I had a Dixon three piece (Delrin/ABS plastic?) which blew the Burns out of the water in every aspect’ Again, the flute I had (Dixon 3 piece) blew the Burns away, I am not saying every Burns ever made, just the one my friend owns. I am familiar with the praise that was put on the Burns flutes, so I was surprised that this one did not reach the hype, apart from the fact that it was really easy to blow.
You said, ‘passing judgement on to others about them may not be good.’ No, no my friend, I am not passing judgment, I am giving anecdotal evidence of [one, yes, b]one [/b] particular Burns flute. All his others may be great flutes, I don’t know.
So…not judgmental, just objective about that one particular flute. 
Ceili man-
Your friend may have one of Casey’s small-handed models. I believe that the holes are smaller, thus making the flute a bit on the quiet side, but Casey could expain that better than I could as I’ve never played one. I did play one of Casey’s standard model folk flutes in mopane and it honked! The bottom D was solid, two octaves sounded wonderful, and it was extremely easy to play.
I’m now playing a Casey Burns large-hole model (pratten-esque) in mopane and it is one of the best flutes I’ve ever played (particularly for only $600). Just a two-piece, i.e. no slide, all wood, it has the fattest and one of the loudest tones I’ve found while being quite responsive, resonant, and easy to play especially for a large holed flute. I was playing tunes with a fellow C&F’er and swapping the Burns with his Olwell pratten keyless–I like my Burns better (though the Olwell rocked right out of gate for me, a phenomenal flute of course) because of the big fat clear sound and it’s $1000 cheaper than the Olwell.
I own that one, and have played a couple of the folk flutes, including a small-holed one as well. All were delightful, and not at all quiet or hard to push. I haven’t played the Dixons, so I can’t compare to them. But I do prefer the Burns to other mid-priced flutes I have tried.
The quiet one described may have needed some repair or tweaking, and I wouldn’t be put off by that anecdotal report.
Has anybody here played a boxwood folk flute?
It would be nice to hear something about it
from a player, especially a comparison with the
old one.
The mopane FF isn’t made anymore; they’re
all boxwood now. But nobody seems to have
played one. We are dealing with something
new, in fact. Interesting!
we ain’t dealing with it very well…
are we!
he mopane FF isn’t made anymore; they’re
all boxwood now
Jim, Casey still makes the FF in mopane if you want it. You just have to wait a little longer. Go check it out:)
http://www.caseyburnsflutes.com/ff.php
I heard John Skelton’s Bb flute, it is made by Casey, and it sounds incredible!!! But I didn’t have the oportunity to hear the folk one.
Some of my friends say it is the best option, speaking of price and quality.
Irish Marine you may be right, it could well be that my friend has the small handed model, but having said that, the reach felt like a normal reach ( what’s a normal reach? ). The tone holes are slightly off set. I did put it side by side with the Dixon and the holes were set at almost the same distance.
crookedtune wrote:
The quiet one described may have needed some repair or tweaking, and I wouldn’t be put off by that anecdotal report.
No, not at all, I am not trying to put anyone off. The flute is in as new condition, joint is good, no cracks, and a nice clean cut embouchure.
The flute my friend has is a nice flute, it is well made, but this particular one is quiet.
I wouldn’t try to put you off buying one Allyson, just be aware that Casey Burns flutes may not all have the same volume across his range of models.
I have only heard one other Burns Flute being played live and it was not as quiet as the flute I mention, it was a two piece mopane like my friends.
I say like because I was not close enough to see if it was the same model. I did have a ten minute play on a three piece Burns Blackwood a little while back, it was nice to play and loud enough, but I was spoilt at the time I tried it because I had the chance to play on three (yes three )different Grinters and they blew me away.
No, nothing preconceived–it was more post-conceived. 
I was merely trying to point out that if you pass on information like that, it being only one flute you tried briefly, it might be taken as a general truth by someone who doesn’t have much experience with flutes or the flutemaker you are referring to with such comments-even as true they may be of your experience with that particular flute.
That, and considering the overwhelming positive comments about them over the years on this forum and others, on how well they play and the great value they represent.
So, one anecdotal report may actually turn someone away from that flute, even if you state it might be an exception. It’s interesting, I admit, but maybe not that helpful to a new flute buyer. That’s basically what I was trying to say, other than spending enough time with any flute to really know it.
Isn’t it interesting also, that when something like this comes up about a flute or maker, that there are so many responses many times, and no report back of the initial poster often times. Maybe they are just overwhelmed! It would be nice to know a little more about Allyson’s problems with her present flute, how long she’s been playing, and what she really means by the things she said.
Of course, she did get the answer she was looking for in the first reply, after all-and we just went on trying to be helpful! 