Hi all,
I’m selling a very good sounding unmarked German flute (“nach Mayer” type), from late 1800/early 1900. It’s made of some type of blackwood with the standard 8 nickel silver keys. It has a metal lip plate and the tone holes also have metal linings.
It used to be a bit low pitched but I corrected the intonation with a few works here and there. It now plays nicely at A=440hz with the tuning slide opened just a few millimetres, to allow a minimum of sharp tuning before the flute gets warmed up. With more tuning slide extension it should be able to be played more or less at “low pitch”, if you are interested in a slightly lower sound for period music or other reasons, though I didn’t check it properly.
It has fixed cracks in the barrel (as usual for old flutes) and a fixed hairline crack in the lowest socket, all stable. Thread is new as well as the cork in the headjoint, which has a reworked 2 euro cents copper coin attached to it where the sound jet bounces, just for fun but works well.
Original pads were all in great shape after some treatment, only the “high” C key one had to be replaced. Keys all work well apart for the low C, which is mostly a matter of wrong design of the bottom keys, I’ve sold other flutes of this type and all had the same problem, at least with my little finger. You don’t really need that key anyway ;D
I can’t say anything but good things about tone, response and the surprisingly decent volume despite the small tone holes (don’t expect it to sound like a Pratten though!). Of course it has a slightly different character compared to English type flutes, but still very nice and woody. I played this flute at Irish sessions for the last two months or so, and received many compliments and people commenting “oh, that flute sounds really nice, has to be very expensive”, and they wouldn’t understand that I was actually selling it for quite cheap!
Price for this 8 key flute in working conditions is 500 euros plus shipping, I’ve seen keyless ones that sounded not so good go for more. The 2 cents coin attached to the headjoint cork is for free. No case.
I offer a guarantee in case anything happens to my restorations within let’s say a few months, I’ll bring the flute back to shape for free minus the shipping costs.
Here is a video (please forgive the audio quality, but it should give you an idea of the sound):
And some pictures:
Contact me for any question!
Lorenzo
