So has Pat contacted you to tell you your flute is ready? Now the long wait has come to the end.
You know, last year at the West Coast Flute Consortium, Skip Healy was lamenting that waiting lists put too much pressure on flute makers, because people’s expactations are so high after waiting for a year or more.
In the case of Olwell though…you’re going to love that flute.
My own Olwell low Bb should be off the lathe very soon as well. Sometime in the next couple of months, I suspect. That should also be cool, but I am not sure if Olwell can match the uniqueness of his D flutes with a low Bb, since he hasn’t tweaked with designs like the Ds.
Glad to hear your wait for the Bb will be over soon, I bet that’s gonna be some killer flute.
I haven’t heard anything from Pat regarding mine yet, but I’m not going to bug him about it - I imagine he’ll get to it quicker if I’m not pestering him constantly
I am quite excited about finally getting an Olwell though. I played an Olwell Nicholson a few months back (mine will of course be a Pratten), and it was a wonderous thing to be sure. Once the Olwell arrives I don’t imagine I’ll ever need another Keyless flute again.
Sounds good to me. A good flute is a beautiful thing, if you can get over the desire to keep playing and acquiring new ones to compare.
This Rudall (w/Wilkes head) I’ve been playing is just a killer flute. I now understand the Grinter tone you hear on Crawford CDs. That rich and sexy tone, right out of the Rudall. I still miss that low D on the Olwell though; there is no low end (or volume!) that can compare for sure.
Greg:
You said it exactly! The sound of an Olwell is awesome. The sound of a good Rudall…phenomenal. The makers of today do very, very good work…but they just can’t get that sound that the old flutes get (and I’m talking about the ones that will play nicely in A=440…not the flat-foot variety, either). Part of it is the aged wood (when first bought…and now, I’m playing a flute that’s an additional 150+ years older than that aged wood was when it was drilled), the other is craftsmanship, and then still the quality of the wood. Cocus (the preferred wood of the world’s best flute players from the time) is very expensive and great cocus of today extremely hard to find of the caliber from days gone by.
Still…some of today’s makers do excellent “tweeks” to the old flutes to make them astonishingly good. Your Rudall has the Wilkes head and Chris is a Rudall master…but my style of play isn’t suitable for the small embouchure that Chris likes to use.
Now, my Rudall was actually made for a Patent Head…but played way too sharp, nearly a perfect Eb with the head almost closed. Then, one day, totally by accident and curiosity, I put an Olwell head onto my Rudall and BAM…what a sound. Incredible. But it wasn’t perfect as the neck didn’t fit my Rudall perfectly. I built up the tenon and that headpiece is on my Rudall at the moment (for the past several months)
So…eventually I tried a Pratten-style Olwell headpiece onto the Rudall (actually…it was from YOUR Olwell, Greg!) and WHAMO…there it was…the perfect everything for my Rudall, or any other flute for that matter…unequaled sound, timber and temperament.
So…I got Patrick a year ago to find me the best cocus around and constuct me a perfectly-fitted custom head piece of his own in the Pratten design for my Rudall. When I sent it to him, Patrick was stunned with how large the bore is on my Rudall and the sound that came from it.
So…while you wait for you Bb and Loren gets his D, I’m not long for my headpiece, which is somewhere between them!
Hey, quit going on about all these other great flutes, can’t you see I’m on the whistle acqusition wagon at the moment - trying to convince myself I can be happy with just one keyless flute. Sheesh, stop being such enablers, would ya?
And what’s with all the mixing and matching of headjoints and bodies, new and old? Have you guys started some sort of secret “Frankenflute” club or something?
Brian,
The wait for a keyless Olwell is generally considered to be about a year or so. However it’s only fair to say that Patrick himself is the only one who is really qualified to answer your question, know what I mean?
On the subject of Frankenflutes, I found this weekend that my M&E Rudall head joint fits perfectly on my restored Metzler. Nice to have the option. Gives it a bigger tone, with a bit more edge than fuzz…
Loren and the rest of the gang -
It’s good to hear about all these fun flutes. Boston seems to be a Grinter/Olwell city, with ohter makers thrown in for good measure (Bryan Byrne, Sam Murray, Gilles LeHart, Hammy Hamilton). I am REALLY, REALLY digging my Grinter right now, after a long struggle to make it sound right, a replaced headjoint, and aching lips. Now, however, it is really, really honking with the best of them. I used to complain about it being a quiet flute, and I’ve heard other Grinter owners do so, but I’m easily able to make it sound as loud as any other flute I’ve heard. Sometimes I think it’s too loud for the session! I’ve been taking some lessons with Peter Molloy and he really set me straight about how the flute should sound. Now I think my flute sounds more like a horn or a reed instrument than a flute - it’s a wonderful, rough, old sound and it’s a real pleasure to discover it after two years or so. Now the trick is to maintain that sound while playing tunes at full clip for hours on end Wish me luck!
Last summer, when talking to Harry Bradley, he told me that he felt the sound from a Rudall model flute was more complex, with more tonal colour and variation. I’m in no position to argue either way, nor do I want to, but I really do think that Rudall’s (and flutes modeled after them) have a really special sound.
Of course, I’m also on Pat’s list for both a keyed and an unkeyed flute. I expect the unkeyed flute to come up some time this summer, and the keyed flute to be ready by the time I retire (I’m 23 now). In the brochure Patrick sent me he listed his wait for an unkeyed flute at one year and six years for a keyed flute. I hear he is very much on time with his delivery of unkeyed flutes. I also have his bamboo flutes in Eb, D, and C, and they are all fantastic. It’s amazing what difference a shift of one pitch down makes! That C flute blows me away (no pun intended).
Peter Molloy got a great deal from Patrick. He has one headjoint, a keyed body in D, an unkeyed body in C, and an unkeyed body in Eb. When he need to play in C or Eb he just takes the headjoint off and attached it to the C or Eb body. The sound is superb. John Kerr, of the wooden-flute list, has a similar setup, but with only D and Eb bodies.
I might relate a story to those of you waiting for one of Patrick’s flutes. I think I’ve told it before on this list, but it’s worth recounting anyways. I heard from a friend, and this may be complete heresay, that Patrick hates to be bothered about when people will get their flutes. According to the story, there is one woman from down around his area who calls him constantly to hassle him. At this point she has been on his list for 8 or 9 years and he has told some people in private that she will never get one of his flutes because he is so sick of her nagging. Let that be a lesson to leave him alone His advice to me was to send him a postcard or a letter once a year reminding him of who I am and what I ordered. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure to meet him or talk to him on the phone, he is a great guy with a good sense of humor and a real pride in what he does. He also has two sons, Aaran and Matthew. Both play the flute, and Matthew is part of the FootWorks dance ensemble. I’ve not met Aaran, though he is friends with some of my friends, but I have met Matthew and he is a great guy and a good player.
Okay, enough rambling… time to practice!
Gosh darn, flibbity-flabbity, good for nothin’ flutes!
Chris
Wish me luck!