So what is it? I expect for this price I could get at most one or two keys at most. I need the loudest and I don’t want to be looking on ebay so don’t tell me to look out on ebay. I will be playing with a Sax and Trumpet and I need something when not amped will cut through. I am assuming it will be a Hammy or a Seery. I don’t want another plastic Flute I am talking about something wooden. Tone is also important but not top priority if there is a Derlin Flute that is louder than a certain wooden one I will definatley go for the wooden one because of the tone.
Well, the Hammy I used to own was about as loud a flute as I’ve ever encountered. Amazing instrument, but too much flute for me… The kind of instrument you need to play every day to keep up your ability to play it, but will take everything you can throw at it and more.
Seems like you are making the old mistake of confusing " under the ear " loudness with the carrying nature of a pure toned flute.
The flute which will cut through other noise, ( which is the technical term for what trumpets and the like produce ) is unlikely to sound terribly loud to the player, who is usually impressed by the overtones he / she is producing, and which do not carry far.
If the player cannot hear his flute over the din, then he can’t play well, either.
If the player can’t be heard by the audience through the din it doesn’t matter much what he sounds like!
This really so, by chance today I was recording myself playing (just to depress myself) on both my Doyle and Wilkes, By golly, I thought, the Doyle sounds loud and raunchy. But the waveform (and the play back) told the truth the Wilkes was nearly 10 percent louder. For less air as well.
Hammy, but it all depends on how you play it.
I’m tempted to say Hammy as well. At least when I play the Hammy it seems the loudest to me. But Christy Barry plays an old Rudall, which doesn’t seem all that loud… except… it cuts through all the noise of a noisy bar and can be heard above a shrill concertina.
So Andrew’s point is well taken. What seems loudest to the player isn’t always the louodest from ten or twenty feet away.
I confess I wouldn’t want to compete with a sax and trumpet,
unamplified.
Hammy. A wooden Seery probably isn’t as loud as the Delrin ones.
Kevin Krell
Dear Avery
Got to agree with Kevin, much as I love my Delrin Seery, I heard a wooden one, it wasn’t as loud. Used to have a Hammy, it was an old one too, but man could it shout!
Of course you could always play GHB!!!
Oh, and are you a piper, that Delrin vs Wood thing is huge in our circles. I had one guy who owned a wood flute take a big bite out of my Seery. So we asked a pro flute player who was around to have a listen, too bad he didn’t listen to the Seery first. I won’t mention the maker, but it ended up that his sounded more like drift wood.,
PS. for all you whistle and flute players, pipers fight over the whole wood thing.
Beannacht leat
David L- how would you compare the Hammy and the Doyle for loudness and audibility? i haven’t played a Hammy, but the Doyle seems to have a particularly bright, rich tone compared to most flutes. it seems to have more 3rd harmonic, which gives it a strong reedy sound that’s quite penetrating.
tia! /dan
I’m not sure the Hammy is all that much louder than other flutes, but it projects and has some sort of presence that no other flute I’ve played has. An Olwell large-hole with lined head will carry pretty well, too.
kevin, how you explain that wooden serry is quiter then plastic one?for me is very usefull information, because i prepare myself to buy desi
wooden one, because i thought that it will be louder than plastic. i posses desi plastic one ( like it very much), and gilles lehart, wooden 5 keyed.also great flute, great tone , but i find it quiter than i like.
i try to play in northern style, so i find pratten style more usefull for me, and i want to buy one good pratten stye wooden flute with loud tone, and desi is cheaper than hammy.
so, seems that i must aquire hammy…???
marin
I think my Doyle is just as loud as my Hammy. The Doyle is also easier to play. It has a wonderfully crisp, strong bottom D. I prefer the Hammy because it feels better in my hands and because it has three keys. The Doyle plays just as well as other top-tier flutes. I will probably be selling my Doyle in the next few weeks. It’s the fanciest keyless blackwood model, with embossed silver bands, and silver tuning slide covered with a blackwood sleeve. Beautiful piece of work and beautifully made. Martin Doyle’s flutes give the most bang for the buck.
The Hammy seems louder to me than my Olwell. But the Olwell is easier to play, esp in the third hour of a kick-ass session. The Olwell also seems to have a purer tone – fewer over-tones – than the Hammy. The Hammy is rich, loud, and complex.
David: How’s the keywork on your Hammy?
Have you thaught of getting a $300 flute and a $600 amplifier ?
Or, better yet,
Sell the rest of the band’s equipment, and get yourself a honking $4K jobbie.
well I had said that Seery was the thing to get, however I received my Copley today, and it is as loud as my Delrin Seery. Its blackwood, and to be honest, from what people have said about Copley flutes, this on exceeds my expectations, and its the cheaper of the two blackwood models.
So my two cents, get one of these Copleys.
Beannacht leat
I’m loving my Copley flute more and more, as I get to know it better. I agree: he makes very responsive instruments.