http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3748899239&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT
Would someone care to tell me about Lambe flutes, and what this one could be expected to sell for?
Thanks
Roger
I hope I’m not being presumptuous in repeating this query, but this flute is somehow stuck in my head. (Okay - take a moment to get over that visual). I can find out nearly nothing via google except that someone somewhere is selling a Lambe flute for what they paid for it, ca. 1,000 UKP.
Does anybody know anything about the playability of this handsome thing? Volume? Maker’s reputation? Nominal retail for new?
I have learned quickly that the opinions offered on this forum are always valuable (if not always on point, but that’s another thing…) and appreciate any help at all that you people can offer.
Thanks
Roger
My old flute guru, Loretto Reid, used a Lambe flute as HER FLUTE for quite a while. She loved it. When she came over to North America, and became acquainted with Pat Olwell’s work, she (of course!) wanted an Olwell.
If memory serves, she had Pat make an Olwell with Lambe-ish holes and bore. Quite small. It was almost comical to see her Olwell next to my Olwell Pratten . . . but she could get big sound out of it!
Stuart
Off topic, but I’m going to a flute workshop taught by Loretto Reid in Michigan next weekend! Should I tell her little Stuey says Hi? 
-Janet
YES! DO! She’s a great lady. Very funny.
Little Stuey. Heh.
Stuart
Re: Lambe flute on Ebay: “Does anybody know anything about the playability of this handsome thing? Volume? Maker’s reputation? Nominal retail for new?”
Gently stated, I think there are better flutes to be had for a bit more than the current price ($300) of this flute. At one point Euguene Lambe was one of only a handful of flute makers in Ireland. Lambe’s flutes are not generally held in very high esteem. Lambe is known primarily as a maker of pipes rather than of flutes. I do not think he makes flutes these days so it’s difficult to estimate the current value of a new one.
For years he made flutes with a wood body and metal HJ, with a reformed mouthpiece (similar to a metal flute) in place of the more difficult to make embouchure of a timber flute. These were very inexpensive and playable, if somewhat characterless. They were generally considered beginners’ or kids’ flutes.
Some Lambe flutes were timber and made with wooden HJs. These had small embouchure and finger holes, small bore, and did not have great volume when played. I know of no esteemed players still playing one of Lambe’s flutes.
I do think you’d always be able to get $300 on a resale if it didn’t suit you. But a Maurice Reviol flute ($550) would probably be a better choice.
He made the usual wooden flutes alongside the metal headed ones, they were two options he was offering during the early to mid 1980s. i had a lambe flute at the time actually, worked fine (if i remember well), not any worse than today’s cheap ones like DeKeyser etc.. Michel Bonamy did a lot of the flutes in Eugene’s workshop as far as I know. The walking stick flute played in David Levine’s avatar is one of Eugene’s party pieces.
A week ago i met a guy who had a Lambe flute with metal head, and it didn’t sound bad at all.
Right you are, Peter, but how did you know?
That picture was used on the cover of a German travel book on Ireland.
Thanks for taking the time to clue me in. Although a “quiet” flute has certain appeal to me, buying a second tier flute is not interesting, especially given that there are many options in the $3-500 or so range.
I don’t know what it was about this flute that caught my attention - probably some subliminal electronic message that E-bay uses to get people excited and run up the bidding.
Roger
I have blown that flute myself in Fanore around '83, nice native boxwood job. I knew the photograph, only when it appeared in your avatar I realised it was yourself.
I’ve custody of Eugene’s first attempt at boxwood, a keyless chanter from 1975. More knots than wood! It was a tree down the lane that had just been cut down.