I’ve been travelling a lot lately (which is why I still haven’t put that Tipple flute in the mail yet, Doc; I think I’ll be home Saturday to send it, though!), and have had a chance to play several other folks’ wooden flutes. I’m currently playing a Dixon polymer, which is a fine instrument (especially for the money), but a couple of the wooden instruments really had me hooked. There is a real difference in sound and feel, at least compared to a Dixon (I haven’t tried an M&E or Seery, so won’t speak for those); the Dixon definitely feels like a a pracice flute, compared to a great wooden flute.
So I’m thinking of getting on a waiting list, and curently leaning toward Copley, Hamilton, and Bryan Byrne. Olwell would be great, but the wait is onerous, and I don’t think I’ll be a good enough player that anyone would notice the difference between various good makers’ flutes in my hands. . .
However, if anyone happens to have a good instrument laying around that they want to sell, I thought I’d send out feelers. Anyone? You can send me a PM if you like.
I don’t know what the wait is on the Copley,
but I figure it’s less than an Olwell, and
I don’t think you would ever be sorry
you bought one.
I have a Seery, too,
which I like and which
sound substantially better than
the Dixon, which I also like,
but a blackwood flute sounds
like it’s alive–as I expect you know
by now. The Copley is louder
than the Seery, by the way.
I don’t think that the Dixon flute is much like his duo set, but I had a duo low D set for about a week and was not terribly impressed compared to my M&E polymer. The M&E is heavier, but the tone is much better and surprisingly enough, has a smaller spread and smaller holes. I am very satisfied with my M&E polymer, I would suggest that if you want to hold off buying a wooden flute. Look on the web, I caught quite the amazing deal with mine.
Actually, I play the 3-piece Dixon Polymer (conical bore), which is very different from his duo or cylindrical flutes. In fact, I played an M&E last year – but not the R&R model – and the Dixon is comparable, in most ways. Definitely a good buy for the money, and a flute I’ll keep around for thrashing/traveling/etc.
But the really good wooden flutes I’ve played recently all had something richer, livelier, woodier in their sound and response. So I thought I’d have a look to see if there were any nice ones for sale here, as well as research the makers’ websites.
I have the feeling that it may well be possible to make a polymer flute that sounds as good as a wooden flute – the clips of the M&E R&R I’ve heard sound fantastic – but that most makers of polymer flutes are probably catering a bit to economy, trading a bit of sound for quickness and efficiency in making (just a guess, maybe not accurate). The top wooden flute makers seem to take more time and care with each instrument to assure a quality product (at a quality-product price, of course!). However, I’m glad to have the Dixon to learn on and to have for those situations where a wooden flute might suffer. It’s good value, and really a nice-sounding flute.
I really look forward to getting a wooden flute, though!
Jessie K has an Olwell delrin flute
which she once described as ‘magnificent,’
but still less good than an Olwell blackwood flute.
Of course ‘magnificient’ sounds alright
to me–but I do think that polymer
has inherent limitations tonally.
The Seery, if it were made of blackwood
but otherwise as much the same
as is possible, would sound better.
I’ve seen the same thing with
whistles made in the same model
with the same care
of blackwood and of delrin
by fine whistlesmiths.
There was a while a few years
ago when people thought the
new delrin instruments would
be as good as wood, but
that’s no longer true, I think. Good luck
with the Search!
Just want to emphasize how much I like the
Seery polymer. Everybody agrees, I think, that
there is a place for polymer flutes–that
there is a controversy as to whether they
can sound as good as blackwood suggests
that they sound very good already.