Flute Color's Effect on Tone

Irish Flute
1

Okay, another highly important topic to discuss. I am tired of the basic yellow, red or black of my usual boring flute woods (pun intended). There are dyes out there such as the
hair colors that my oboe making mentor Doug Steinke used, etc. The problem is that most of these don’t stick to these hardwoods with the exception of boxwood. In my hands
the results are mixed. Thus am thinking of a good coat of paint instead of dyes. Inside and out as this would keep what moisture that is in the wood there and keep the player’s
breath moisture out. I can get Latex Exterior paint at the local hardware store but I don’t like their pastels. More primary colors. Such as what my close friend Mark (also an Irish flute player)
used in his retro-inspired kitchen (see below). Daniel Smith’s in Seattle has a wide range of gesso, etc. The Italian bagpipe makers in the past would paint their olivewood pipes with
different primary colored gesso on each turning detail. The modern makers turn things kind of IKEA fashion.

How will this affect tone? More importantly, how will it affect the average flute player’s perception that a different color of flute than the one she/he plays will affect the tone,
when it doesn’t do anything in reality? Will this do anything to prevent tenon compression? These are the types of things I worry about. These thoughts give me nightmares.

Casey

2

Is it April already?

3

Its always April 1st in my mind.

4

This suggests that orange, at least, is feasible. Of course, this was pre-Sherwin Williams…



The Ould Orange Flute

In the county Tyrone, in the town of Dungannon
Where many a ruckus meself had a hand in
Bob Williamson lived there, a weaver by trade
And all of us thought him a stout-hearted blade.
On the twelfth of July as it yearly did come
Bob played on the flute to the sound of the drum
You can talk of your fiddles, your harp or your lute
But nothing could sound like the Ould Orange Flute.

Toora loo, toora lay, oh it’s six miles from Bangor to Donaghadee.

But the treacherous scoundrel, he took us all in
For he married a Papish named Bridget McGinn
Turned Papish himself and forsook the old cause
That gave us our freedom, religion and laws.
Now the boys in the townland made some noise upon it,
They forced Bob to fly to the province of Connaught;
Took with him his wife and his fixins, to boot,
And along with the rest went the Ould Orange Flute.

Toora loo, toora lay, oh it’s six miles from Bangor to Donaghadee

At the Chapel on Sundays to atone for past deeds,
Bob said Paters and Aves and counted his beads
Till one Sunday morn, at the priest’s own require
Bob went for to play with the flute in the choir.
He went for to play with the flute in the mass
But the instrument quivered and cried.“O Alas!”
And blow as he would, though he made a great noise,
The flute would play only “The Protestant Boys”!

Toora loo, toora lay, oh it’s six miles from Bangor to Donaghadee

Bob jumped and he started and got into a splutter,
He pitched the Ould Flute in the bless’d holy water;
He thought that this charm would bring some other sound,
When he tried it again, it played “Croppies Lie Down!”
And for all he would finger and finger and blow
To play Papish music, the flute would not go;
“Kick the Pope” to “Boyne Water” was all it would sound
Not one Papish bleat in it could e’er be found.

Toora loo, toora lay, oh it’s six miles from Bangor to Donaghadee

At a council of priests that was held the next day
They decided to banish the Ould Flute away;
They couldn’t knock heresy out of its head
So they bought Bob another to play in its stead.
And the Ould Flute was doomed, and its fate was pathetic
'Twas fastened and burnt at the stake as heretic.
As the flames rose around it, you could hear a strange noise
‘Twas the Ould Flute still a-whistlin’ “The Protestant Boys”.

Toora loo, toora lay, oh it’s six miles from Bangor to Donaghadee

5

6

Nahhhh! Them colors are too dark. Might make me play flat.

7

Pink Ivory is always nice.
Some good fifes are made of it.

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/pink%20ivory.htm

Colored polyacetal would be what I would go for.

8

Hmmm… Got to thinking about it… If you could do patterns, maybe you could do a Dublin tartan to match my kilt! Then I’d be color-coordinated to the extreme!

9

Racing stripes, obviously.

10

11

I’ve met a pink pibgorn… sounded much like any other pibgorn… bit quiet, maybe - strangled even. Was that the colour? (And yes, it makes a tonal and aesthetic difference how you spell it!)

I think modern black Ebonite (that doesn’t go green in daylight/rain) really should be the only option - best sound (R S Rockstro said so!), best colour… (though I believe it is available in other colours). Black never goes out of fashion, is the ultimate style statement, is easy (no co-ordination choices to worry about) and is bound to sound as dark and mysterious and well-tempered as it looks.

12

Polyacetal seems to be used often now and comes in many colors too.

Placebos work all the time (you just have to worry about the nasty effects).

13

I did have an enquiry from a chap who wanted a bright blue flute - I think inspired by a popular young Irish fiddle player with an electric blue fiddle. He wondered if I could stain boxwood electric blue. I figured I couldn’t.

You can get coloured plastics, but they tend to be rather soft milky colours, hardly “electric”.

I think it was Tom Ganley who supplied flutes in a dull brown wood painted shiny black, so there is a precedent in paint…

Terry

14

How about bleaching wood?

15

Plenty of Italian and German late C19th/earlier C20th flutes lacquered shiny black to emulate ebony! Hell’s teeth, iainbeg’s Keith Prowse I did up had been similarly lacquered to hide the shoot-branch knots and sap-wood incursions into the main heart-wood - a flute turned from rather mean baulks cut from small gauge timber - medium branches perhaps or young trees rather than trunks of mature ones - and judging by the badly aligned key-slots etc. used for an apprentice piece? So even English makers stooped to such measures! Didn’t affect its tone, though (stonking flute) - though I did take all the lacquer off (badly chipped and had cracks to repair) and didn’t attempt to replace it.

16

I believe Misha Somerville has already been experimenting with color in the MK whistles. Perhaps a study of tone can begin there.

17

I hope we can all look forward to the day when a person is not judged by the color of his flute. Or, to paraphrase the late Martin Luther King:

“I don’t play the way I oughta play. I don’t play the way I wanna play. I don’t play the way I’m gonna play, but thank God I don’t play the way I did.”

18

Colin Goldie too. A friend of mine has a black MK low D. It’s cool. Plays fairly well too, though not as well as the rep, I feel - a trifle anodyne… Perhaps I’m just fussy, perhaps a red one would be better.

And haven’t the users of Dymondwood used it in assorted shades?


Coloured Ebonite:

maybe not bright primaries, mind!

I like the swirly ones!

19

Paint a flute? Who would do something silly like that? :smiley: Appliance epoxy! It’s still as tough as nails after months of abuse.




Kirk

20

Enough colour for you? Mind, I won’t vouch for any claims these are truly flutes as we understand such things…