What I want is a flute with suitable spacing and good responsiveness.
I’m currently playing a 6-key Copley flute, and it suits me well. But since Copley doesn’t make 8-key flutes anymore, I can’t upgrade my Copley through them.
I’m considering buying another 8-key flute, but I’m not sure which one would suit me, and I don’t have many chances to try different flutes where I live.
My main concern is the finger-hole spacing, especially for the right hand. I have relatively small hands, and I want to play fast passages comfortably. I think I might only be comfortable with Rudall & Rose flutes. When I play a Pratten Perfected flute, my right hand hurts, and I can’t play rolls smoothly with my left hand.
Here’s a list of makers I’m considering:
Aebi
Jay Ham
Steffen Gabriel
Morvan
Maybe Aebi is the best choice for me, since the waiting time is only 12 months. But no one around me has an Aebi flute. If I have to wait 4 years or even longer, I’m not sure which country I’ll be living in by then, and that could make things complicated.
Does anyone have experience with these makers? Or are there any other makers you would recommend?
Also, if it’s possible to get a custom footjoint with low C and C♯ keys that fits my current Copley flute, rather than buying a whole new flute, I would prefer that.
I have no personal experience with his work, but Maurice Reviol in New Zealand will add keys to any existing flute, maybe just have him add the two low keys? Many others on the forums here speak highly of his keywork.
Is Maurice still working? I had him add an Eb key to a keyless flute maybe 20 years ago. Good work, not cheap, and shipping was super pricey. He would pin mount those keys if he could do them unless you have block mounts for the low keys but no keys.
Antique flutes are definitely an option. R&R or American flutes (Hall, Firth Hall and Pond, etc) are also great choices because they have small holes yet good power/volume and most importantly…they are much more likely to be in A=440 than most English flutes. Check out the Irish flute store…last I looked there is a super nice American flute and an R&R available now.
Thanks! I want to order a completely new footjoint, not add keys to my existing one. I’m not sure if that’s possible, so I’ll have to confirm it by email.
Modern 8-key flutes are quite expensive, they require a lot of extra work compared with keyless or 6-key flutes. As mentioned, if ordered from a respected maker you will have a multi-year delay. The top-names have MUCH higher prices when they come up on the secondary market. Buyers are obviously willing to pay the price, and I notice that flutes from Olwell, Gallagher, Grinter sell instantly when they do come up.
19th C English 8-key flutes are more readily available and at a lower price, as well as American antique flutes like Firth, Pond & Hall that Eric mentioned. R&Rs are well known as quality instruments, but the English knock-offs from that era can be just as good at a lower price, especially Wylde (who probably made many R&Rs himself). Lower price means on the order of $2,500 to $3,500. You’ll pay rather more if we’re talking about a really nice-sounding R&R branded flute.
One reason for the lower price of antiques is conventional concerns regarding whether they are pitched at A440, as pointed out by Eric. Basically all of these flutes from the 1830s through 1850s were designed to be played across a range of pitch, from A435 to A445 (approximately). In excellent, well-repaired, leak-free condition they can be beautiful players.
High Pitch (A452-457) became the standard later in the 19th Century (1860s - 1910s “ish”), so the HP concern doesn’t apply to the standard R&R simple system flutes which is the genre which we are talking about. You are definitely advised to check sounding length and pitch on later Pratten and Band flutes as well as the Siccama flutes with extra keys.
And, sometime these lovely R&R flutes were cut down to play at higher pitch.
There are a lot of antique flutes that play well at A=440 hz. It is however common to find that the head has been cut shorter to allow the tuning slide to be pushed all the way in so the flute can play at higher pitch, but more often than not, the body is scaled to play better in tune with itself at something close to A=440. So you’ll end up playing such flutes today with a significant tuning slide extension (15-20 mm).
Such flutes are often (incorrectly, in my opinion) described as being high pitched. High pitched flutes do exist too, but they will have a shorter body and more compressed tone hole layout, and are often fairly easily identified as band flutes.
The trick is to find an antique that is being sold as high pitched, but actually isn’t (because it has a longer bore and tone hole layout, and just a short head) and then have a new head made for it specifically for A=440 hz. This way you can get a terrific playing 8-key without a long wait and with significantly less financial outlay. But you need to know what to look for.
I don’t know when Stéphane Morvan last updated his website, but right now the price list page says that he no longer makes 8-key flutes (and that his delivery time is about 6 years…).
If a maker based in France suits you, Sébastien Villoing makes 8-key flutes. I posted more info about him not too long ago.
I am waiting for an 8-key flute (expected in January). Initially I also thought about having only a new foot made. But then realized that I have no use for two, and that selling the 6-key flute I already have shouldn’t be difficult. So it made more sense to get a whole new flute (having the money for it of course also helped; would have been a different decision if I had needed to sell the 6-key flute first to fund the new one). All that to say: you may want to consider which extra item you will end up with (only a foot or a whole flute) and how easily this item can be sold should you not want to keep it.
A little off topic, but I’m curious why you want the extra keys… You only gain 2 notes (which are rather difficult to play, btw) and a bit of weight. I’m NOT criticizing, just curious…
In recent years I have been collecting more and more tunes that go to low C# or C, so it will be nice to have the option to play these notes low.
These keys also offer new interesting options for the second octave. More ornaments become possible on C# when produced with the “high D+key fingering” instead of the “all holes open” fingering. A similar logic applies to C (even though some ornaments are already possible with the high C key). And some transitions can be easier with the low keys than with the conventional fingerings. Now that I think of it, as I practice tunes I keep running into examples where these keys would offer something.
And the new possibilities in the second octave aren’t only about ornaments and certain easier transitions: the tone is also quite different, more “solid”, with the “high D+key” fingerings than with the conventional fingerings.
I played an Aebi Cocus 8-key Rudall for several years. It was a great flute, my first foray into keyed flutes after a keyless Windward. Beautiful tonewood and fairly easy to play with a solid, sweet tone. I was able to hold my own in local Irish sessions.
I bought it secondhand so had no interaction with the maker. The one complaint I had was with the traditional pewter key design on the C foot. I never got a solid C, but the C# was okay. This might be down to the secondhand nature of the flute and poor adjustment, but I’m just not crazy about that design. Maybe Aebi offers a modern key pad design now?
I eventually sold it to help fund my current flute, a blackwood Peter Noy “Nicholson” with slightly larger tone holes and a more “raspy” embouchure tone compared to the sweeter tone of the Aebi. It has the more modern keys and pads on the C and C# foot joint where I can easily hit those notes.
Regarding the need for 8-keys, if you have any desire to stretch outside the standard repertoire of Irish tunes, I recommend going for it. I only play a couple of tunes where I use the C# but I like those tunes. Another consideration is balance. Both my previous Aebi and my current Noy have fully lined heads. I think low foot keys may help balance the heavier far end of the flute.