I had been reading with interest the now locked thread which discussed the place of origin of Michael Cronnolly’s flutes. As I had ordered one myself (as a relatively inexpensive back-up) I was starting to get a little worried about how mine would turn out. I got my 8 keyed blackwood flute in D as ordered but to my shock it had a rather obvious repaired crack, here it is;
(Edit, picture did not appear)
I got back to Michael and he was apologetic saying that he had sent me the wrong section and if I returned the flute he would send me a new one in its place.
One thing that I noticed when I got the flute was that the R3 hole is off set on his flutes. Now this is fine if you are a finger tip type of player, but this was no good for me as I play with pipers grip on my right hand. Michael was very helpful in that he made the right hand section of my flute with an in-line R3 hole. I had to wait a while longer, but that was no problem.
I am still going to have to relearn my right hand position as it is very difficult to hold the flute with pipers grip because of the keys pin positions.
Another problem I had with the first flute was that the oil that Michael uses made my lips feel as if acid had been poured on them. He uses baby oil on his flutes, so when he sent my new flute it was unoiled. I just got my new flute and set about oiling it over a few days and letting it acclimatise. Here are a few pics of the flute and you can make up your mind on the workmanship involved.
Notice the in-line R3 hole in this pic’ below;
I have just played the flute for the first time today. I recorded it straight off without any warm up and without pipers grip. I found it very difficult to play with any speed because of what I am having to do with my right hand, but with practice I shall get there. I could only play it for a few moments as I don’t want to get any moisture resting in it at the moment until it is fully penetrated and conditioned with oil.
I use cold pressed linseed oil. (not the explosive type!)
Here’s a short clip of me playing the new flute; http://www.box.net/shared/vrnggm9d0u
First impressions are;
The flute has a nice even tone and volume, (I don’t know if that comes across in the recording)?.
At the moment it does not seem to be a particularly loud flute, but I am sure I can work on that with a bit more breath control.
The flute does not require a lot of air; in fact it took me a minute to get anything out of it as I had to reduce my airflow considerably to make a sound. I have a medium to large holed flute which can take a fair bit of air and pushes well so getting used to having to use so little air in the new flute was a challenge.
The keys are easy to reach and operate, with a nice smooth action and ‘just right’ spring tension.
The flute is easy to balance considering it has a fully lined head, there also is no tendency to want to tip one way or another and weight is not an issue for me.
The pieces all fit neatly together, the corked tenons are well fitted and seal well.
The only thing I can nit pick at the moment is that there were a few little glue leakage spots on the flute, one on the foot ring and another at the tuning slide, but I was able to pick these off with my finger nail. The gap between the short F key and the foot keys is only wide enough for my R3 to fit.
So to sum it all up, a very nice sounding flute with 8 keys (yes, 8 keys!) and a better bargain you would find hard to get anywhere.
Hmmm… the Eb key is further up the barrel than usual - is it comfortable to reach with the little finger? Looks to me like you’d end up having to get the little finger under the ring finger to use it.
the Eb key is further up the barrel than usual - is it comfortable to reach with the little finger?
No problems, I found all the keys are very easy to reach, I play with the back of my left hand turned towards the embouchure end of the flute. My right hand fingers also angle back slightly towards the embouchure end of the flute. I found that by rotating the foot section down and away from the R3 hole that I could still reach the foot keys and I was also still able to rest my pinkie on the flute rather than on the key mechanism.
I’m glad you’re liking your 8 key M&E. I agree that the Eb key placement is not an issue. I think you’ll find it will play plenty loud once you’re adjusted to it.
They are truly a bargain…especially for such a lovely sounding flute. The keys he uses these days are an improvement over prior keys…very nice.
ImNotIrish, the embouchure is fine, I tried taking a couple of shots but was getting glare from the flash, this was the best I could do. As for the endcap, I don’t like it, it is ugly. It does look a lot worse when enlarged in the pic. I would sooner have a plain stopper.
You were sent a cracked and repaired joint on a new instrument by accident?
Yes Aanvil, it does seem a bit strange, I just had to accept Michael’s explanation.
He did offer to fully refund me for the flute.
Another thing, when I got the first flute from M and E there was a very noticable nick in the embouchure hole which affected the way it played. There is a stark contrast between the original flute I was sent and the flute I have now, a huge improvement. Make no mistake, if this second flute had not come up to scratch it would have been sent straight back.
I shall post a couple of clips in a few weeks when the flute has been properly acclimatised and oiled in.
I am not looking forward to retraining my right hand fingers to play fingertip style rather than pipers grip.
Might seem strange that you recieved a used flute at first, but everyone makes mistakes. Michael probably has a lot of flutes circulating his workshop, and since his business more resembles mass production than most other wooden flute makers (although it is of course not even close to mass production in a more global sence) he probably has a lot of very similar flutes around.
I think you will find this flute growing on you in a wonderful way once you get used to it. The embouchures on these may take a while to learn but once learned they are great playing flutes with heaps of volume. I’m not playing my M&E so much these days, so I know that it would take me a couple of days playing it to get it to sound as well as it used to when it was my main flute.
I think what Michael is doing is great! No matter how he does it (refering now to all the theories which have been circulating the boards lately), he manages to provide great playing 8-key flutes for unbeatable prices. Of course you can’t expect it to be flawless in terms of workmanship, that’s just silly to expect something like that at those prices. There is a market for these just as there is a different market for McGees, Olwells, Wilkes, Grinters, etc. I think we should all be thankful for what he is doing instead of trying to point out all the flaws (that includes other makers as well).
