I have a decent Millyard-Molem D flute and It is sounding better every week, in my opinion. I wanted to buy a decent polymer flute to keep in work, to play when I need to relax. I read all the reviews and reports of cheap flutes and wondered “Why would a company keep churning out cheap, crap flutes, surely someone must be buying them”. So I bought one to try. the one I purchased was £120 from a company based in Northern Ireland. I have no doubt the flute originated in Pakistan. It is shiny plastic, three piece with a tunable head.
I must admit, when i took it out of the box and assembled it, it didn’t look too rough, there was a bit of spilled glue on the head joint where they stuck the nickle plated rings to the head. The holes don’t look like they have been undercut and the embouchure looked too big, quite a bit bigger than my Millyard-Molem Flute.
I tried to play a low D and although a little breathy,(probably due to the enlarged Embouchure hole) it didn’t sound too bad at all. I have a chromatic tuner and I set it to 440HZ and played from low D to middle b and it played in tune for most notes, i had to twist the head towards me for a few to flatten some notes but I was surprised at how close the intonation was. I played a few reels and again, it was a little breathy but was playable. I then decided to try my Millyard-Molem head on the flute and it needed a bit of cork grease as it had virgin cork on the tenon.
When I played it, it sounded so much better, the breathiness had gone and although the Millyard-Molem flute is a nicer flute to play and listen to, this flute isn’t all that bad. I am not sure whether anything can be done to the head to improve it, i considered pouring wax into the embouchure hole to make it smaller then reworking it to the same shape as my MM flute. Does anyone know if it is possible to fix this head? Alternatively I will probably splash out on a spare blackwood head for this and keep it as a practice flute.
I’ve been thinking along these lines - I now have several subcontinental Pratten style keyless flutes in both wood and acetal. They are finally getting their act somewhat together and these are no longer the proverbial table legs, though there are still plenty of those out there. As we saw with the Q1T flute, there are usable musical instruments hidden in these - they’re not even too awful out of the box. The bores usually need smoothing and the tone-holes tidying, and the ODs of the sections tend not to match (bodies usually thinner than head/barrel or foot, but they’re quite tidy and well-enough tuned. The biggest problem is, as you found, the over-large and ill-cut embouchures. I’ve had a couple whose original embouchures weren’t too large and I managed to recut them without them getting silly big, but I now have 2 in hand which are already way too big. I also have another more reputable flute with an over-enlarged embouchure which I want to rescue, so one at least of these will be a guinea pig in due course. The answer is to bush (fill in) the holes and recut. I have a plan for so doing with acetal rod, but haven’t got at it yet.
Jealous of your Millyard-Molem. I’m on Tony’s waiting list. Fantastic freaking flutes, and at an almost absurdly low price.
Stu, here’s a thought: There are a variety of dental materials which may adhere to the embouchure area of your Paki flute. and still be workable with a dremel or files. You really only need to work on the front edge and the front of the two sides. If you know a musically inclined Dental Tech or Dentist, they might be able to advise you. Alternatively, dopping wax or hard thermoplastic wax might allow you to experiment without doing anything unalterably permanent.
Bob
Cheers Folks, i think I will stuff a rag up the headjoint and try bushing with wax first, if it works i have some epoxy putty which i used to turn a cr*p 5 keyed F flute into a decent keyless F, and block up the embouchure hole, then re drill when hardened. I have a dremel type grinder but I;d like to research embouchure’s and undercutting to make sure I get the right angles. I suppose if i make amistake I can always fill it again and start again.
I will still order a new wooden head but Tony is busy now until late November. I spoke with him recently and he said he was happy with the prices of his flutes and had no plans to increase them in the near future but expected to have a longer waiting list after Christmas. When you consider his keyless R&R’s are less than £500 they are fantastic value.