One guy wrote me about a flute he’d bought by chance in an antique shop in Prague (Czech Republic) this summer.
Has anyone ever seen a logo like that? To me it looks quite awkward and I am inclined to think that it is a Pakistani or Indian hack. Taking also into account he payed 140 Euro for it.
However 140E is too much for a Pak flute and, he told me the flute seemed quite old and cork on one tenon had been damaged. He also sent me a vid with him playing this flute and though he is no good flute player the flute seemed to me to be in tune. Not much inforation, I’ve asked him more on the internet but no answer yet.
Have anyone seen a flute with a logo like that? What can it be?
Interesting flute…I’ve never seen a maker’s mark like that, and it’s really pretty detailed for a Pakistan made flute. However, it can’t be too old being a keyless flute - that means it’s likely from the 1980s or later.
Hopefully someone on the board will know who marks their flutes that way.
Kevin…that’s weird…they show up perfectly in the post for me. The image is of a bird…pretty big engraving and seems unlikely for a Pakistan made flute to have such an intricate engraving as their mark.
If I quote the post, I can see the code for the image & links. Possibly my ad-blocker is somehow masking it.
EDITED TO SAY: Yes, according to Disconnect tracking plug-in and Adblock Plus plug-in, the images are being tracked by a Russian advertiser (Yandex). Mystery solved.
It is Pakistani or Indian. I recently picked up a 2nd hand outfit of flute, decent hard case and decent nylon carry case with this brand/logo for not very much. I bought them for the cases, which have gone to house a rather different class flute! However, the flute itself, whilst crudely finished (or simply not finished! - particularly in the embouchure and tone-hole chimneys and bore) is a significant improvement on anything we’ve seen of this sort in the past. As in, it plays decently in tune with a not bad tone. When I find some time to tidy it up, I think it will be more than OK. This is not the first example of apparently P/I flutes I have handled recently which suggest to me that some of those makers are finally getting their act together and some of our lower price range Western makers had better look to their laurels. I’ve been intending to make a post about these observations to the sticky thread and will do so in due course. However, there’s still plenty of the established type of FLO junk out there, so caveat emptor and try before you buy! I would not yet recommend anyone to buy the OP example, but we can no longer, IMO, make the old blanket assumptions…
How interesting Jem! However, I’m not surprised…I figured Indian and Pakistani makers would improve their product if they really were intent on selling them long term. I also knew certain brands of these flutes had some innate promise…otherwise, I can’t imagine Rod Cameron taking the time to clean up and sell them like he did some years back.
What company is making these with that bird engraving? I’d like a decent case that’s not a pistol case and not expensive.
Just checked the photos I took of the case outfit. (Can’t post them at present) - the brand is “Quality 1 Trader Ltd.” or “Q1T” as seen in the lark-in-a-triskele logo. The hard case is nothing fantastic cosmetically, fairly typical of the cases many flutes of this general type are being sold in currently.It is reasonably tidily made, fairly solid and generally serviceable.
Jem, great thanks for the info! It is clear now what it is.
The owner of the flute wrote me today he couldn’t find out the origin of this flute since shopkeeper he’d bought the flute from didn’t speak neither English nor Russian.
He also wrote the flute itself was made quite neatly, with no dents, chips and other issues. There was a box with the flute, with no logo on it, but the liner inside, he said, had been worn out. In all, he is content with this flute, but he is no irish flute player and haven’t seen any good maker’s instrument to compare.
But it seems to me he was lucky to have bought a good Pakistani flute.
“Good Pakistani flute”… Mmmm. “Usable”, certainly, I’ll give it that much - the one I have here is certainly more than a junk FLO, but as is, whilst I’ve certainly played worse produced by allegedly “proper” western makers, I wouldn’t call it “good”.
Here’s a current Q1T eBay listing. I have to say the price is quite attractive given the case is worth a few quid.
And here are some more photos of the one I have:
The stamp
View to the playing wall of the embouchure!!!
And a perpendicular shot
One of the tone-holes - not exactly tidily finished either!
The bore - That’s not mould, just the effects of flash photography on the apparently totally unsanded-after-reaming bore…
The whole thing - purportedly made of “rosewood” - it’s very light in weight and judging by a couple of dings on the surface not terribly hard and doesn’t look much like any rosewood I’ve seen before.
Finally, a photo (poor light!) of the Q1T flute in between a Seery Delrin (top) and an anonymous keyless, very P…-looking but (? Delrin or equivalent) polymer and quite well made (allegedly in Ireland, but I has me doubts!).
I also have another recently acquired P… flute I’d have included in this group, but it’s on loan just now. The interesting thing is that they all play pretty decently - after I doctored the embouchures and tidied up the tone-hole edges inside and out, including the Seery’s, whose embouchure was squint and rather stuffy. I haven’t done anything to the Q1T yet, though, and will record a demo on it before and after I do so. It’ll need a bit more than just the embouchure tidied up, though.
Yoir us are gettung middled ip wuth yoir is. 
- That’s not mould, just the effects of flash photography on the apparently totally unsanded-after-reaming bore…
