I own a Burns keyless D in mopane, and I have come to love it, now that I can play some tunes on it!
Having not played any other flute, but have lurked here on this forum and have read everything written here on other makers. But no one talks of Casey’s flutes.
So I got to wondering about his blackwood flute and how it measures up to you here on this forum. Has anyone played one and if so what are your thoughts.
MarkB
-I have one purchased recently, but am
a newbie -so take my comments
cum grano salis: Mine is a blackwood tuning slide flute with a single dimple embouchure cutaway and rings for tenon reinforcement. I’m not sure how much the
cutaway does for the playing, as
playing his blackwood Rudall model without it was also just fine. I like having a slide, however, and the rings add a handsome touch. Some of his other flutes have a three-dimple cutaway.
-My embouchure is undisciplined, but can get a nice tone and a nice crux point for both octaves by rotating the headjoint in or out. Rotate in for a nice, buzzy, warm and quieter tone, or out for an airy, louder sound. Some headjoint positions will generate a loud “just right” tone, but I am inexpert at finding such at will.The low D is easier to hit on pitch with the embouchure rotated out slightly, but embouchure change i.e. upper/lower lip position and overhang of the embouchure
makes a vast difference in tone and to a degree in pitch. I seem to keep the low D on pitch mostly by not thinking about it, but it will play flat by neglecting to keep the air supply up or if the embouchure is rotated in too far. I haven’t played
others and can’t compare ease of filling.
The tuning is fine right from the shop, so I haven’t messed with the cork position. -The C-natural is good with two fingers, and a hair better with three, so phrases involving C-natural are just fine
with either. - I like the flute’s room filling sound, and have a long way to go to exceed its potential.
Brian O.
[ This Message was edited by: brianormond on 2002-12-19 11:16 ]
I’ve played a Casey Burns blackwood D
and liked it considerably. It’s
beautifully made, it’s realtively
light for a wooden flute, and
the tone is well defined and lovely,
I thought. But I know little about
flutes and I do note that CB flutes
are sometimes held in low esteem
by people who I think know more
about flutes than I do. So I find
the situation a bit mysterious.
Also, I like the mopane flutes,
too.
Casey’s flutes seem to vary from so-so competent to very good. I understand that he is very willing tweak a flute of his if you are unhappy with it, and he seems quite a nice guy, and sincere about his work. The one or two I’ve played have been okay, no more or less, but I feel he probably is capable of making a great flute. Since he is one of the few makers that can get a flute out to you in record time, this discrepancy of quality may lie in the speed in which he produces flutes. But that’s speculation on my part.
That said, I think anyone that makes a good flute from one wood can most probably make as good a flute in another; if you like your mopane flute and feel you like Casey’s workmanship, I see absolutely no reason why there would be a quality drop or difference, other than in the wood itself, if he makes one in blackwood. Personally, I’m not sure the difference, other than look, between blackwood and mopane is worth a second flute, unless you’re thinking of a different style, or with keys, etc. In which case, the question isn’t about mopane v. blackwood.
I’ve only played one Casey Burns Flute, which I bought from Casey several years back…a mobane Flute in D, no slide. It was a great looking flute, but I think it lacked the punch that I now have with my McGee Flute.
My CB flute was a lot like my first couple of Flutes by Ralph Sweet… They sound good and will do the job, but then when you get a high end Flute like Terry Mcgees…well you’ll hear the difference
Mr F
My experience is that the one
blackwood CB flute I played
was much better than the CB
mopane, which was hardly bad.