Hello all,
I was browsing through Bleazey’s informative site reading about the different woods and their characteristics:
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/bleazey/timber/timber.html
I wonder did anyone try an olive flute or a holly flute and could supply a review?
also, is there an advantage of having a Mopani flute rather than the common Blackwood?
thanks!
I’ve not tried the olive or holly (that must be new), but have a yew wood Bleazey. It’s easy to play (ie I can get a noise out of it as a beginner), the hole spacing is good for smaller hands (on all his flutes) and the yew has a very sweet tone, possibly not the best for loud irish session, though I’ve had a few friends try it - who could play - and they can get quite a lot of noise out of it.
Chris
Mopane looks yummy but my impression is it sounds
a bit less good than blackwood. So Casey Burns tends to
make the headjoint of his Bb flutes from blackwood,
the body from mopane, because he feels the
blackwood headjoint has a better sound.
Apparently mopane is now in short supply.
[Casey Burns] feels the blackwood head-joint has a better sound.
No, he doesn’t say that. Sorry. He claims “the greatest possible efficiency of tone,” whatever that means, and “further volume.”
I doubt that any of us could tell the difference between either hj in a blind test.
I reckon you’re right about the blind test. Just heard John Skelton
play his Casey Burns all mopane Bb at the Tional concert.
Oh my…
As to what Casey says, i figured ‘the greatest possible efficiency
of tone’ and ‘further volume’ means ‘sounds better.’ If not then
we can agree that Casey thinks blackwood has more volume
and produces tone more efficiently than mopane.
What I think he thinks is that blackwood will produce note
changes more definitely, more crisply, FWIW.
Johnny Gallagher has a holy Eb loaned out to someone that Cathy and I played and just raved about.
Some nice pictures of mopane and olive-wood flutes can be seen here:
http://www.windwardflutes.com/
Regarding the original question, I don’t know of a particular advantage to owning a mopane flute vs. blackwood. I chose mopane for my flute because it’s attractive (particularly in good light…not what most pubs are known for), and it’s very hard and durable (but so is blackwood). (Anecdotal evidence suggests mopane is also hypo-allergenic.)
I’ve tried the same model flute in both woods side by side (two flutes by Burns and two flutes by Copley), and the differences from slight variations in embouchure cut, etc. seem more pronounced than any tonal differences between the two woods, as far as I can tell.
Indeed it is. Positively Grail-like. 