If anyone has played both the matte black Aulos Baroque flute and the shiny black model, I’d like to know what the difference in sound is.
I curerntly have the Stanesby and used to have the matte black Grenser. I’d say the Stanesby is softer, mellower and has more depth and complexity of tone than the Grenser.
I didn’t like the Grenser too much. I had a hard time getting a consistently good tone from it. That’s probably my playing. I wonder if the shiny black one is “brighter”. I’m just guessing, because it’s shiny.
I had both the shiny and matte versions of the Aulos. I didn’t find a big difference in the sound, but found both of them to lack complexity relative to blackwood versions. The matte version appeared to have some hand-finishing on it, and to be better quality. As I got better, so did the flutes. I was surprised by the honk I could get on the shiny version when I began to learn the Irish flute on my shiny Auolos. I preferred the matte version overall because I could get a tone with more centre and less edge.
For a while, Rod Cameron was selling modified Aulos shiny flutes, and he either re-reamed the bore, or just roughened the bore, and worked on the embouchure and finger holes, and adapted the foot so that the tuning was better when switching from A415 to A440. This version is better than either of the the stock Aulos.
I haven’t played the Auloso Stanesby. My former duet partner had a Rod Cameron Stanesby-lovely flute, and as you remark, soft and complex tone.
I think “more center” is what I get on the Stanesby. And this is really what I’m looking for. I play Boehm and I can get edge, but, not being anywhere near a good flutist, I have a hard time getting expression out of it. The Stanesby is really amazing in that it almost “speaks for itself”. I don’t have to try that hard to express what I want to express.