Doc at Irish Flute Store is selling these. Anyone try one? How heavy is it? How is the volume?
Has anyone played this flute?
I have one of his flutes and have been very pleased with it. It is a small bore Rudall though, so I was waiting to see if anyone would chime in who had the large bore version. As for weight, it is certainly much lighter than the old M&E I used to have. THe Somers flute only has a partially lined head (for the tuning slide), and balances quite well. His flutes are extremely well made and mine has plenty of punch. I would assume the large bore version has an even better low D “honk” as well.
That’s an unusual cut for an embouchure hole, is it not?
Arbo
I bought a large-bore Somers Rudall flute here on the flute forum. I agree that the flute is very well made. I doubt that you will find a nicer-looking delrin low D flute, from what I have seen, especially in this price range, and a five-piece flute with tuning slide for $370 retail is a bargain in today’s market. With regard to weight, I didn’t weigh the flute, but I think that it would be of average weight for a flute made from delrin, a dense polymer. To answer your other question, I think that the flute has plenty of volume, and the intonation is quite good. It’s a fun flute to play. The only negative comment that I have about the flute is the quality of the low D note that I am able to blow. The low D has plenty of volume and is easy to blow, but the note is somewhat fuzzy in my opinion. Like I said, this could well be my inability to master the demands of Gary’s embouchure on this flute and that others would do a better job. All in all, I think that this is a very nice flute for the money and one that I can recommend.
Arbo, the outer cut of the embouchure hole on the Somers flute is a large oval but not too different from other well known flutes. Here are a few flutes that I have embouchure measurements for individual flutes.
Rudall Rose @ 12mm x 10.8mm
Wilkes @ 11.5mm x 10mm
Doyle @ 11.5mm x 9.5mm
Somers @ 12.6mm x 10.4mm
Having looked at that image again, I’m not sure what you might be seeing there, Arbo. My embouchure holes are an oval cut, typically around 10.5mm x 12.5mm, in accordance with Doug’s measurements on that particular flute. The cut on the large bore R&R model is the same as the one I use on the small bore models with medium-sized toneholes, one of which Latticino has.
Garry
Not too worry… probably just the photo. The oval looked ‘pinched’ to me, hence my comment about it looking unusual.
Arbo
Ah right…actually that may not be a bad observation at all on your part, as I do cut a “tighter” oval shape on the two R&R models than on the Pratten model - although the two embouchure styles end up with the same basic measurements in length and width of the major and minor axes of the oval. The embouchure hole on the Pratten model gets an overall “broader” oval shape - or as you might say, less “pinched” looking - at the two ends, I suppose you mean. That makes for a longer, straighter blowing edge on the Pratten model - so it’s a bit more tolerant of player error. On the other hand, the tighter oval needs a bit more focussed approach.
Of course, there wouldn’t be anything unusual about either of those two shapes - and nothing to stop me from interchanging them between models.
As a general note, I probably won’t be making the large bore R&R model again for a good while - nor the whistles either - until I’ve managed to catch up on various other flute-related projects here. I’ll still be doing the Pratten, which is of course a large bore model, both 5-piece and 3-piece, along with the small bore R&R with medium holes and the aluminium flute with delrin head.
Garry
Thank you for the replies. It seems like Gary has some great flutes and the cost is reasonable too.
Gary,
Perhaps you should consider posting one of your flutes around the group on a tour so everyone can see just how good they are.
I’ve been very pleased with mine, and I am a vquite critical person regarding tone and manufacturing quality.
I’ve also owned a good variety of flutes to compare it to: (M&E, Seery Pratten, Ward Hawkes, Metzler, Wm. Hall and Sons, and some unnamed, probably early American Boxwood flute). It stands up to, and surpasses, some as regards build quality and tone. Barring finding a restorable R&R in a bin somewhere, I honestly don’t think there is a better value on the market for simple system flutes.
I may do a tour at some point but I don’t have any plans for one at the moment and I’m not sure how the logistics work, so I’d need to look into that too. My prices will need to go up though - particularly on the 5-piece models with metal slide, so they won’t be such a good deal anymore!
The embouchure cut I currently use is towards the responsive end of the range, so I’ve been working up some other styles of head-joint here – all of them giving a more resistant response, including one with an embouchure hole depth of 6mm, which I’ll be doing using a thinned head with raised lip plate.
I’ll say more about these and post some clips in a couple of months time.
Good to hear you’re enjoying that flute!
Garry
I think the sound clip on this page, http://www.somers-flutes.com/prices-contact , of the Rudall large-hole is very promising. Wish I was still getting lower-priced delrins; I’d certainly want to try one of these.