Thanks for letting me join, I may ramble before getting to my point but bare with me .
My main instrument is the tin whistle, but I have always been interested in the flute.
I have been purchasing steadily bigger flutes, to work myself up to a Low D Irish flute, because
I love the sound of those instruments.
I have smallish hands so I was worried I wouldnât be able to play, because I purchased a Low D tin whistle before
and I donât have the hand reach to play it properly. I noticed a B flat fife on Amazon, and on receiving it I was
pleased with the sound, so I purchased a D flute that the same company was offering.
My hand size works for this Irish flute, because it is tapered/conical, and I can manage to get some notes out of it (though I find
it hard to get it to blow in the lowest octave), but I still wonder if my limitations in getting a good sound out of it is because of my breathing control,
my embouchure, or because its a $60 flute.
Does anybody have any experience with AAR products flute on Amazon? The flute itself seems well constructed and in tune, but I am
curious to see if any real flute players have tried it.
I donât really want to give a directly link to Amazon, because I am not paid to advertise for them .
I did a search on AAR and came up with five Google pages total, of nothing in English other than their products on eBay, etc. Theyâre based in the States, but that can mean anything. If theyâre going to be that shadowy and judging by the look of the flute, first impression tells me to suggest that if you must buy the thing, do not do so with any hope of landing a quality, well-playing instrument.
If thereâs one thing true about these flutes we play, itâs that barring the extraordinary, you really do get what you pay for. I say 60 bucks should tell you plenty.
If you really want to buy a new flute and you have only $70USD, and you have smallish hands, youâd be better off to get one of Doug Tippleâs flutes.
Theyâre inexpensive and actually play music - and have some resale value, too.
Looking at their other Amazon offerings, it makes me wonder if they are really a salvage/overstock store. I am about 100% sure that is a mid-east manufactured flute from the pic.
Iâd run away unless you could try it in person first, and even thenâŚ
I actually have the flute already and can (sort of) get a tune out of it. I bought the flute because
their B flat marching flute was playable.
As for what material it is made of, it says elsewhere online that they are rosewood.
The thing is, arenât those pvc tubing? I am not so much worried about the source of the material, but a cylindrical flute that size will probably require greater
reach than my hands can supply.
If I canât get an Irish flute to fit my hands, would I be better off with a concert flute?
Internet rule: If it smells like an unstrument, it IS an unstrument. You wonât get a playable handmade flute at that price. Search this site for âflute shaped objectâ. There is a deep vein of unhappy experience you should learn from.
Not necessarily, if you use the so-called âpiperâs gripâ. I have small hands so thatâs how I do it. Depends on you. I tried a Tipple once, but Iâm afraid I donât recall how significant the stretch was. I was able to play it, though.
BTW, âconcert fluteâ is an older term still used among some trad fluters to indicate the kind of wooden D flute youâre talking about. But of course we know what you meant.
I tried that on a PVC Low D whistle before, and it didnât work, but did almost work when I used my little finger instead of my finger finger to cover the hole
BTW, âconcert fluteâ is an older term still used among some trad fluters to indicate the kind of wooden D flute youâre talking about. But of course we know what you meant. >
I meant the silver Boehm cousin of the older style Irish flute yes . I could buy a Boehm flute (there are some cheap ones with good reviews on Amazon) but I would prefer
a six hole simple system flute because in terms of fingering, it is just a horizontal tin whistle.
There are plenty of smaller holed simple system flutes out there, but the Tipple is not one of them. I have small hands, too, but have no problem with most of the flutes Iâve played and I donât play them with piperâs grip. Being conical bored, the holes are much, much closer together than on a low D whistle.
The only things Iâd say is avoid very large hole pratten models. Most Rudalls and other modern takes on older flutes style such as Nicholson or Hawkes should be fine. If youâre really, really worried about your hand size, Casey Burns makes small holed folk flutes for somewhere around $375 and for about $250ish you can get a Dixon 3 piece conical polymer flute (not designed for small hands, but the holes are small at it works for that well).
Iâve not tried Dixonâs new conical 1 or two piece flutes - theyâre thinner bodied and not made like a traditional flute - more like a Tipple but conical so the stretch would be less and the holes smaller. That might be a cheaper option, but I donât know how easy they are to play. The 3 piece Dixon is not a bad starter flute at all. Iâd say the Burns is better but costs 1/3rd again as much.
I might look at the Dixon 1 piece flute, IF they are conical (or just buy a Boehm, I like classical music also). The Burnâs flutes look wonderful, but a little out of my price range for now.
I wonder why AAR make a pretty decent B flat fife, but canât make a good large flute. Was I just lucky to get a good fife out of them, or
does scaling a flute up bring makes bad quality issues more obvious? Just pondering.
Thanks for all the replies, even if the D flute I bought is crap, it has still shown me that a conical flute WILL fit my hand size.
Did you glance at AARâs other Amazon items? Theyâre electronics. I would be shocked if they made anything. If theyâre selling musical instruments on ebay, they likely are bought/salvage items (e.g., from seized goods for a store, say, that is being closed for unpaid taxes). You were likely lucky on the fife.
EDIT: Thatâs weirdâŚon my phone the link for their Amazon store takes me to electronics, but on my home computer itâs all Celtic stuff and instruments (including pipe reeds). Despite that, I think youâre lucky. They describe it as black and claim itâs rosewoodâŚthey clearly donât know what theyâre selling and it perfectly matches mid-east manufactured flutes.
Dixon makes reputable thingsâŚif you can get a conical bore one, itâs not much money and itâs more likely to be good and playable by far. Iâd go with the two pieceâŚthe cost if I recall isnât much more at all and being able to tune some is a good thing.
Yes they are slightly tapered, but still rather a toy IMHO. FWIW I had one of these as my first âIrishâ flute and thought it was quite nice, but I soon wanted (and got) something better. So itâs probably okay as a gateway drug⌠and then you still have a nice camping flute.
BTW, as you say youâre new to the sideblown flute I wonder how you can judge the quality of that Bb fife⌠I mean, it takes quite a long time until youâre able to produce a decent tone in the first place, and if youâre only learning with crap instruments from a dubious company you may be misguided in what you consider âplayableâ. So Iâd say itâs very important that you know you have a playable instrument youâre training your embouchure on.
Actually, I bought a bamboo flute in a music store, which is a midsized flute in the key of G, which plays even better than the fife, even though its a $8 piece of bamboo!
My ears work ok though , the fife is as playable as I expected, and I can over and under blow it to get the octaves, so I would rate it as fair.
You are right though, how do I know I have the right embouchure unless I have reliable flute.
I did look at their items, they tend to sell Scottish items, like spurrens (sp?) and bagpipes, though other searches tend to show they sell misc other stuff.
Two piece instead of the one piece Dixon sounds good, since the jump in price to the 3 piece is considerable. Now to get my wife not to kill me for buying another instrument (I have lots)
will be another level of difficulty .
One thing to consider. For the price of several less than satisfactory or dubiously playable instruments, you could have bought one of Dave Copleyâs basic Delrin flutes or something similar that would keep you happily occupied for years and hold much of its value: http://www.copleyflutes.com/catalog.html.
Right. Itâs worth remembering that if you buy wisely, you donât lose money, just turn it into a form that you can play and, if ever you wish, sell again, sometimes at a profit. Also if you want to play flute, itâs really a good idea to buy something you know is playable. Otherwise you just throw money away.
I agree with the common sentiment that you get what you pay for. Having tried quite a few cheaper flutes from the reputable starter flutes - Dixon and other non descript flutes available from ebay and in general,I didnât enjoy the sound they made nor did I enjoy playing them. As others have said , there are decent quality PVC flutes available âDoug Tippleâ at a reasonable price or âHammy Hammiltonâsâ Aluminium practice flutes.
Personally I would stick to the Bb high pitch flute/fife, develop a good embouchure and play the whistle tunes you have learned already, meanwhile, save your money for a better quality D flute, keep watching the âInstruments Exchangeâ forum on this site for
items offered for sale as everyone i have had dealings with on here, share a smiliar passion, are reputable and I respect their opinions.
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