I’m playing my Seth Gallagher six-key
of late with the Olwell headjoint plus
plumber’s tape, presto, a keyed ersatz Olwell sort of flute.
It’s actually very nice.
Meanwhile the Gallagher headjoint attached to the body
of an older Dave Copley keyless flute plays beautifully
in the key of Eb.
Another Frankenflute: I have an Atwill 8-key from 1840 (by
way of Dave Migoya), which
seems to be a second from the Rudall works in the UK
shipped to the USA and sold in Atwill’s music salon. It’s cocus.
I sent it to Kara Lochridge, whom I know from my
days in Bloomington,
who worked on the embouchure and also tried to get
it more in tune. I’m playing it with the Bryan Byrne
headjoint, however, and that is really nice. The Bryne headjoint
erases the remaining tuning anomalies, virtually.
I’ve never played a first-rate old Rudall but I
suspect this approximates one.
There are sometimes serendipities, facilitated by
silicon tape. If you have two flutes, you may have
four.
Any other frankenflutes out there?
Every time I get a new/another flute I swap heads around just to see what happens.
Its fun.
Hey Jim (Happy 4th.!) 
One of the most unusual FrankenFlutes I’ve come up with is the AULOS Traverso’s head (I love this little embouchure) and the Healy’s body (some of the toneholes are larger than the embouchure). While this combination doesn’t “Honk” it is rather pleasant to play (though a bit sharp).
This is actually a method used by makers to tweak designs, play with designs and make new designs. In my shop for instance, I have parts of flutes laying around that go back to my early days of flute making. Occasionally I’ll have a need to experiment and these parts get mined for this purpose.
Yes, I’ve franken fluted, enjoyed it even–but only very briefly. Then I quickly put everything back into their respective cases for fear of going blind.
Fusion cuisine is suspect, even when it’s tasty.
Well, it’s very nice to have a keyed-Olwell, sort of.
The Pratten and Nicholson Olwells take the same headjoint,
so the idea is that the sound can get pushed through
a narrower tube to good effect. Which is what the
Gallagher tube does. I don’t think it sounds as
good as a Nicholson, but it sounds very good,
no question. And it has keys!
The Gallagher headjoint on the Copley body, the
slide pushed in all the way, does seem to yield
an Eb flute. Not just any old one, but an extremely
lovely sounding one.
And you know I could spend 5,000 bucks
for a Rudall as good as what I think I’ve
got with byrne headjoint on the atwill body.
Hubba, hubba!
Just wanted to add that I’ve now put the Cotter
headjoint on the Gallagher body. This results
in particularly lovely flute, the tube is narrower
than the Cotter’s and it produces a more
focused sound. Pure gold. And it’s got keys, too.
