Hi folks,
I’m looking for a moderately priced A flute and was wondering if anyone could guide me to which would be the best choice in terms of sound and intonation among the Sweet, Tipple and Miller options (or any others I may not be aware of).
Many thanks,
Jon Michaels
I have a Sweet cherry wood flute that is very nice,
lovely Rudally sound, focused, in tune, easy to
finger. At that pitch volume isn’t going to be an issue,
so I’m willing to trade off volume for focus.
I would expect a Billy Miller A flute to be very good too,
the Bb is good. Not tunable, of course.
Doug Tipple’s A flute is very good, and tunable.
I have one. At this point it comes down to the
sound of wood vs. PVC, also the focus you
get from conical vs. the more open sound
of a cylindrical design.
I can’t judge the Miller A, not having one, though
I expect good things of it. Of what I’ve played
I best like the Sweetheart A. IMO, of course.
Unfortunately, it appears that Sweetheart doesn’t currently make a keyless flute in the key of A.
They’re there under ‘Fifes for Folk Music.’
Made of walnut, rosewood and blackwood,
but I’ll bet they have cherry and maple too.
You can see in the pictures that these, call them
‘fifes’ if you wish, are conical flutes.
Ah! Now I see it. I had also looked at the Pro series, but didn’t think to look at the Folk Fifes.
Apparently the newer Sweetheart Folk Fifes include a conical bore (as a real flute), but the older Folk Fifes do not. For instance, I have an older D Folk Fife with a cylindrical bore, so a buyer might want to be careful about buying an older Folk Fife.
That said, and seeing as Jon-M could be so near to the Sweets, I’d say to give them a call, and then see what they could have on hand.
Admittedly, I am a Sweetheart fan.
Thanks very much for the info, folks.
Jon
Does anyone make an E flute? That way you could finger G and get A. It would be closer in pitch to a D flute and maybe easier to handle than a low A (unless you want a high A, of course).
hammy
You know, now that you mention it I seem to have one of those. 
Ha! That reminds me of someone or other, who can’t seem to remember how many houses he owns!
(Oh, yeah…the other forum…nevermind, I was just leaving…). 
I, too, have more flutes than I can offhand recall.
That, however, has long been normal!
Actually, I want an A flute so that I can play certain tunes like Farrell O’Gara or the Silver Spire or Loftus Jones without having to fudge the low notes. So an E wouldn’t do the trick.
Well, there are two “A” flutes, one of high pitch, and one of low pitch.
Of wood flutes, Sweetheart makes a high pitch A flute, and Casey Burns makes a low pitch A flute.
G’day Jon M…A great tune is Faral O’Gara’s…and there is a great version of it in the great film…The Secret of Roan Inish…great news eh 
…
Its in the key of D and playable on our D Whistles and Flutes…As well as being a great ( 
) tune it’s good for practice as it covers ALL the notes in the first 2 octaves…one of my favourite tunes…
Hi to you too! It is a great tune and that rendition by Maire Breatnach is lovely; however, to get that first low A below middle D, you need to be able to dip down and somehow, coming at it from above never has anything like the same effect (for me, at least).
Aha. But isn’t playing that on an A flute or fife going to make, say, the B part of Farrell O’Gara quite high, i.e, borderline shrill since you’ll be fingering in G (especially the end of the B)? (ditto Silver Spire)
Unless you’re going for a low A flute – and if so, you’re a far better man than I am! (I play Farrell O’G & Silver Spire on my Bb (fingering in G) and that’s moving enough large timber for me)
But thanks for the illumination. And good luck!
Alas, actually it’s not that I have so many flutes. It’s that this particular flute IS so many flutes. A sharpish-D one day, an Eb another day, a sharpish Eb-almost-an-E the next … it’s a bit schizophrenic.
This flute don’t need no steeenkin’ corps de rechange – it’s three, three, three keys in one!