Has anyone had an opportunity to try one of their keyless flutes?
We had one at the SoCal tionol for eval, but few realized it. Of course you wouldn’t just go open up someone’s flute case without asking, so I didn’t get a chance to try it out…
Its up at Gabriel’s about a 90 minute drive north of me, trying to decide if its worth the trip to test the flute… Looks like a Pratten style instrument.
Thanks for any info,
Michael
It looks like the company has a really nice and “flashy” website, pun intended…What about this square embochure they are talking about, seems pretty strange…
Hi Michael,
There is a close-up photo of the flute at this site:
http://arhpa.com/ingles/flash/
It looks to be a pratten style flute in African blackwood with silver rings and tuning slide. Current price is 765 euros.
Drove up today to Gabriel’s and gave the flute a nice long test flight. Very well constructed, well in tune, fairly easy to blow. Comes in a fantastic hard case with strap.
While it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea (I prefer Rudall designs) it was a very nice instrument and I’d recommend it to someone looking for a flute in the $700-$1000 range but doesn’t want to have to wait. A tiny bit weak for me in the bottom notes, but that could just as well be me getting used to the instrument rather than the flute itself.
Cheers,
Michael
I had a keyless model until they put three keys in my flute. It’s a great flute to play, with very good response, very well in tune and gives you a lot of power if you want. I would say its similar to the Hamilton I’ve tried. The fact of no waiting list for keyless models it’s a great goal.
Bye.
Serafin.