All,
I had to share that I got an email from Hammy and my flute shipped today!!! Now I just have 5-8 agonizing days until it gets here!!! I’ll keep everyone posted, and I’m going to try and find a digital camera so I can get some pics if anyones interested. (which reminds me… Someone was going to send me pics of their beast… wonder where they are?? 
)
Cheers,
Tony
I PMd you with my e-mail but you must have not read it.
Willie
Tony, you’re gonna dig that flute. The time I tried out a Hammy, I was very impressed.
Not to make it all about me (where’s the emoticon for batting eyelashes?), but … 
I’m sending you some tiny bad whole-body shots, but the better photos are sitting here on my desktop because they’re big files (avg. 600K) that need to be whacked down. If our crack IT department would get here and reinstall Photoshop on my machine like they swore they’d have done by this morning, I could cop 'em, convert 'em to jpegs & send 'em …
Anyway, don’t know if you can see anything on the little ones, but they’re on their way to your alternate email address.
Man, you are going to love that flute! It took a couple of months of getting to know my Hamilton flute before I was close to feeling comfortable with it but I can guarantee that it will make you a better player and FORCE you to develop a good emboucher. Mine isn’t a really forgiving instrument to play but it makes playing other flutes now feel a lot easier!
If I ever break down and buy either a digital camera or a scanner I’ll post some pics (cocus with room for 8 keys…).
All the best,
Wes
Amen to that, whamlyn – all that you said. I’m lately thinking that Hammys are like the Fiats of the flute world. They take a special sort of love, but for those of us who love them … what a love it is!
I have played many different makes of flutes, and each one has been special in some way, but there have been two flutes to which others simply do not compare.
In the simple system flute world, it is my Hamilton. It is wonderful in every way.
In the Boehm system world, I once spent a weekend with an original Rittershausen–that was also an outstanding flute in every way. It belonged to Dr. Steinquest and was old enough it had a Boehm crutch and the B / B-flat thumb levers were reversed compared to a modern flute. It had a wonderful thick resonance and would take absolutely as much air as you could give it, but it could also fall down to a soft husky whisper.
–James
Tracking numbers are EVIL!! 
My Hammy only left Heathrow today… 
I was hoping for a miracle of miracles and it would arrive tomorrow. I guessing Tuesday now… 
Tony
IT’S HERE!!! I need to spend some time with it, but so far… WOW!
Tony
Take those photos now! The flute isn’t going to stay that color. Mine was a lovely brown with nice striping when first received. It’s not just an even dark brown, without the apparent variation in the grain.
Kevin Krell
All,
I thought I might be able to give a first impression. I can’t. All I can say is I love this flute and I feel like I should have bought a lottery ticket the day I got this, because it doesn’t get any luckier. It’s so much that my humble beginner status can’t even begin to review this: Not even close. If you have the chance to get one, do. That’s all I can say…
Tony
How is the transition to the Hamilton from the Burns Beginner?
That’s sort of a tough question. I got a Seery a couple of weeks before I got the Hamilton and had been playing that quite a bit before it got here, so I was used to the big tone holes. I will say that I don’t think it would be too much trouble. I’ve been switching between all three flutes and haven’t had a problem. I don’t know if this is right, but I feel like the Hamilton has made me a better player on the other two; but in the same breath, MY Hammy is the easiest playing flute I have: Hands down the easiest…
Tony
Very interesting. Very nice, too.
This is an Official Flutesite.com Blackwood Grain Update. 
Just so you know, there may be a little hope for a visible grain on your Hamilton. The grain on mine has darkened, but is still visible, especially in good light.
It’s a lovely flute!
–James
Mine’s a few years older than yours, James – the flute is as close to black now as wood can be, though there was some nice reddish brown flavors early on, particularly in the footjoint. In sunlight, after oiling, I can still sort-of see it, but in the realm of wood-grain admiration, where figured boxwoods and others reign supreme… hmm… it’s an awfully black flute.
Still, it is, in fact, a lovely flute, and it plays better than when I first unveiled it and admired the now virtually invisible reddish grain.
Gordon
And I have no doubt mine will darken over time as well…it’s just over a year old, now, after all.
My antique blackwood (probably blackwood, anyhow) flute is pitch black, coal black, only in brightest sunlight is there is barely visible blood-red grain.
The real beauty in my Hamilton is the way it plays and sounds…the appearance is still strikingly lovely, but if it turns black as pitch over time, that’s ok by me. A black-as-coal Hamilton is still one profoundly lovely flute.
–James
The Hammy Eb I have is the drabbest of my flutes ~ dead black, no highlights even in the sun.
I think it’s about 8 years old (?)
But it doesn’t matter to me how it looks! That sound is awesome
Mary
Black is beautiful. it’s elegant, especially with silver.