Hola and my apologies if this has been asked before
I’m completely new to the flute. I play ITM on box and banjo (though not at the same time)
I’m looking to buy a simple flute and have around £150 - £180 to spend (I’m in the UK and want to buy within Europe so I don’t have to pay import duties)
I’ve seen wooden 3 piece flutes from woodenfifes.com at around that price and plastic (delrin?) flutes at a little less from Tony Dixon. Or can anyone reccomend any other budget flutes that are playable and UK/EU based?
So I’m looking for something I can learn on and get a good few tunes out of (almost everything I play is in g, d or related keys) and will last me a few years
Thanks in advance
Jimmy
There’s a delrin flute (from Italy, I think) listed now on the used instrument section
of this board. Know nothing about it, but you might be able to search on it (see search
section above).
I’d say, within your budget, your best options are probably a Tipple flute, a Hamilton aluminium student flute (with a plastic head), a Somers aluminium (with a plastic head), or increase your budget slightly and buy a second hand Casey Burns Folk Flute.
Should you be interested in any of the above (except the Hamilton Student Flute) I have them and would be willing to sell to you.
BTW I also have a Dixon three-piece, which, in this case, would be my last choice if I were you.
Jimmy, I own one of Tony Dixon’s flutes (https://www.tonydixonmusic.co.uk/products/tb022/d) but similar to JoFo, it would not be my first recommendation. (It is currently my primary flute while I am waiting for a flute from Terry McGee. I’m not sure how my experience would differ had I gotten the 3 piece flute… from talking with Customer Service at Tony Dixon it is my understanding that Tony Dixon’s flutes are moulded delrin, so I can’t imagine the 3 piece differing all that much from the one I bought.)
I had already been playing bamboo flutes (which I made) and a modern Boehm flute when I got my Tony Dixon. I had had good tone previously, but when I first got the Tony Dixon, it was hard for me to get a sound out of it that didn’t sound like Plastic. I’ve worked enough with it now that I am 80% comfortable with the flute’s tone, but I am really looking forward to playing something else.
That being said, I don’t think I would be playing ITM if I didn’t have the Tony Dixon. I definitely prefer it over using a modern Boehm flute. (The modern Boehm flute differs enough from simple system flutes that it doesn’t make an easy switch between the two.) I’ve had it for about a year and it has been useful to learn tunes, but I’m generally not confident about the flute itself and the tone I can get out of it. It is hard for me to measure how much of the problem is me and how much of the problem is the flute. I’m trying to move on to a better crafted flute partly for this reason, so that I can at least be confident that my flute is not the problem and that I can work to improve my tone and sound.
JoFo’s suggestion of a Casey Burn’s Folk Flute is a great one. Honestly, if I were to want to get a beginning flute for ITM again, I would want a Casey Burns Folk Flute: http://www.caseyburnsflutes.com/ff.php . If he’s got a second-hand one and may be able to cut you a good deal, I’d go for that.
JoFo, I’ve been curious; can you tell me a little about your experience with the Dixon three-piece?
Pushing your budget to 290 would get you a Damian Thompson delrin flute. This is without the silver rings so all your money goes on getting a decent starter flute which will last you a long time. He’s in Stoke.
I thought I’d replied to this thread a while ago - maybe I don’t have enough posts yet and am still being moderated?
Thanks for all the replies. I don’t know any flute players locally (quite strange really. Lots of other instruments but no flite players) I’d previously picked up a ‘silver’ flute on eBay very cheap and have been plodding along with it.
Anyhow as luck would have it a Tipple flute has come my way at a good price so that’s what I’m going with. So far I like it. I’m getting notes out of it, slowly getting my head around the art/magic of ‘embouchere’ and think it’ll do me for a good while.
Thanks for the recommendations of the American makers but I was looking to avoid them as the UK government put 25% on top as import duty.
Ive managed to stay well within budget and have a flute that comes well recommended.
I hate spending money but now I can get on with the enjoyable stuff of playing some tunes
I’d be interested to hear of peoples experience with the Tony Dixon’s. I kind of wanted to get one as they are made locally to me in Bideford
As for Dixon flutes. I have both a three-piece one and a two-piece. The two-piece flute has a non-Dixon body since the original was very badly intonated. It’s easy to play and sounds fairly flutelike.
The three-piece flute is obviously a more expensive and “better” flute.
It just doesn’t do it for me.
It’s a sturdy, small-holed delrin flute. But at least mine doesn’t have that much of a tone. It’s quite breathy and not very full sounding.
So I actually find it less inspiring to play than the two-piece Dixon.
I’m well aware that Calum Stewart plays a three-piece Dixon in a video on Youtube with great results. Needless to say I’m nowhere near his embochure and playing. But compared to the flutes mentioned above, as well as some other flutes I have, the Dixon has much less going for it.
But then again, the flute may suit other players better than me.
Just watched the Callum Stewart vid on you tube -very impressive. I guess it shows if you play well enough you can get a tune out of anything.
Right, back to putting in the work with my Tipple
There is also an old thread where Patrick Olwell made a 3 piece Dixon sing. I had one…it was my first conical bore Irish flute (I had been making, and selling locally, my own hand made bamboo flutes before that).
I think the Dixon is a great starter flute and if you’ve the embouchure it loud enough for a session. I often wish I hadn’t sold mine…if Tony would ever get around to adding an Eb key I would never have sold it.
So much of how a flute sounds and it’s volume is the player. Design does make a difference, but I think it’s hard to go wrong with a Dixon 3 piece conical bore for the price.
So thats a couple of perspectives on the Tony Dixon flutes. I’m too new to flutes to know for sure but I play a couple of other instruments and a good quality instrument is easier to play than a not so good one but my experience with other instruments tells me that there are no short cuts. Fortunately I enjoy the learning process
When I was first starting out, I brought three flutes to my first lesson. The two-piece Dixon, the three-piece Dixon and the Casey Burns Folk Flute. My teacher didn’t like the Dixon flutes at all (so it can’t be just me). He did like the Folk flute a lot, though.
The Folk flute is extremely easy to play and sounds really good.
Yep, you are right.
I change my advice to the open poster: if you can, wait to have more money to spend (about 500/600€) and buy a wooden flute. Some good makers offer very nice keyless wooden flute that fits that budget.
Thanks for the advice guys.
As I said I have been lucky and got hold of a Tipple quite cheaply -and am enjoying it.
At the moment the sounds coming out are OK but I can see ive plenty of work to do yet. It’ll be a long time before I take it to our fortnightly session
I’m going to stick with my ‘plastic’ flute until I have a bit more experience of playing and a FAR better embouchere but I can well imagine spending more money later on when I’ve a bit more of an idea of what I might want. I’ve never known any musician that only had one instrument.
but I can well imagine spending more money later on when I’ve a bit more of an idea of what I might want. I’ve never known any musician that only had one instrument.