My Hamilton flute is back from Ireland, complete with a new 6-keyed body.
Wow.
It’s a beauty.
I’ll post more on it later.
–James
C’mon, James, you could at least put up a picture! 
Mary
Congratulations James! I’ll bet you missed it while it was gone. I just got my Hamilton keyless last week, and wish I could play it longer than the break-in period allows. The second octave is much easier to get than my Burns Folk Flute. Is there a break-in period for yours, was just the body replaced? Did you keep the keyless body, or trade it in?
I traded in the keyless body for the keyed, kept the same headjoint.
I am still going through the break-in period, following his recommended oiling schedule except for the headjoint, which is already broken in.
This is a wonderful flute, and had a couple of surprises for me.
First, the tone is different. This flute isn’t quite so much of a “volume cannon” as the keyless, but it is still a very loud, projective flute, and the tone is wonderfully rich and woody.
The tone holes are slightly smaller than on the keyless, and I think positioned a bit differently, and with much heavier undercutting. The flute is slightly flattened over the right-hand tone holes in the manner that Nicholson advocated, which is actually very comfortable to me.
The flute speaks easily and is well in tune up and down its range. Hitting the high E in the Contradiction requires no special effort at all.
Also a welcome change on the first octave C-natural. On the keyless body, ( o x x | o o o ) was the best fingering, and (o x o | x x x ) was noticably sharp. On this body they are both nicely in tune. Also the F-sharp seems just slightly flattened compared to the keyless, which is also a change I approve and welcome. It’s subtle, maybe in the range of 3 to 5 cents or so.
I will post some pics as soon as we can find our camera!!! We are still living out of boxes for the most part. It’s definitely a work in progress.
Anyway, back on subject, it’s a wonderful flute and I am enormously pleased!!!
–James
I’ve gotta see it! Hope you find that camera soon.
Still haven’t found the camera (working on that!), but here’s what it sounds like on Sweeney’s:
http://www.flutesite.com/samples/sweeneys_hammy.mp3
–James
You’ve got a real winner there James, lovely sound and good playing, keep it and keep playing for us.
Best
MarkB
That was just great! A great flute, a great tune, and great playing too.
Lolly