I searched the archives and found a few reviews of Ralph Sweet’s keyless flutes. The main theme seemed to be that they were not very consistent, but most of this was from about 2 years ago. If you have one or have tried one, what was your impression? I plan on traveling to Tucson this weekend to try out a couple of them at a store there.
Thanks,
Bob
Well, I haven’t been here very long, but I realized that this might be sort of a breach of etiquette asking for opinions on a particular flute. Kind of reminds me of the “Triple dog dare” from A Christmas Story. 
If so, you can send me a PM on this.
Thanks,
Bob
Now you have to explain the triple dog dare…
Stay around here longer and you’ll find some people don’t mind airing their views. Others will send you PMs. If you do a search for Sweetheart you should also find a wealth of material.
I am happy to post my opinion. Some of Ralph’s flutes are unplayably bad and some are good, but for the same price, you can get a Casey Burns Folk Flute, which is worlds better than the best Sweet flute. End of story.
This is from the movie “A Christmas Story” where one kid dares another to put his tongue on the flagpole because the kid he’s daring doesn’t believe it will stick (this is during winter in the midwest). The dare escallation order is supposed to go like this: dare, double dare, double dog dare, triple dare, and finally triple dog dare. The darer went directly from double dog dare to triple dog dare.
Bob
I like the maple sweetheart flute in D perhaps best,
along with the Rosewood, which costs more.
I’ve owned four Sweetheart flutes and
played a lot more; maybe they were once
inconsistent, but not lately IMO.
I think these are very nice flutes, in fact.
They do not do what more expensive
flutes do, but I certainly enjoy playing
them. A very different voice from
CB folk flute, certainly.
Take my comments with a grain of salt as I’m selling a Sweetheart Keyless Rosewood to finance my purchase of a keyed flute…
I’ve had my keyless Rosewood for about 6 months and find it a very easy flute to play. It has good intonation in the first and second octave and a nice round (but not too loud) sound. It is a little weak on the low D for my taste, but not unbearably so. I played it mostly at sessions and had no problems being heard in small groups, and have also had comments from others there on how nice it sounds.
The only caveats I would give it is that it is not nearly as loud as my M&E Rudall and that the holes are a bit close for my large hands. I play a piper grip and cover the M&E holes easily, but my hands feel cramped after about an hour of playing the Sweet.
Now, I had to play about a half dozen of these at the music store before I found one I really liked. A few were not loud enough and one was out of tune slightly. Overall I’m very pleased with it, but in no way would compare it to the volume I can get from my M&E or other more expensive flutes I’ve played.
Hope this helps…
-jeff
I found a Ralph Sweet flute in C at Lark in the AM for a good price… so I picked it up. I checked the tuning of a couple of notes while in the store, but didn’t have time to do a thorough job - plus the price was good (apparently it had been there awhile). Anyway, since getting it home and using it in our band for awhile I have found the tuning to be rather “squirly”. Upper and lower octaves are slightly out of tune with each other (fiddling with the cork helped a bit but not enough). It is rather quiet, but that’s what the mic is for… I would’nt buy another Sweet flute. I am currently waiting for delivery of a loooong “A” monster from Casey Burns. If that works out ok I’ll see if he will make me a “C” to replace the Sweet.
Clark
Glauber, I can’t believe you haven’t seen that movie! You may have been living in this country a while, but you’ll never properly understand life here, especially in the midwest (the movie takes place in Indiana) until you see it.
Back on topic, Chris Layer (professional flute and bagpipe player in NYC) plays a Ralph Sweet walnut F flute and likes it quite a bit. I think he told me once he got very lucky to find it, so he seemed to be aware of inconsistency, although this was a while ago. His main flute is a 6-key boxwood Olwell in D (drool!!), but on some tunes he plays his Sweetheart and it sounds great.
Steven
Maybe you will give us a review of the A monster?
Reach, etc…
I have a sweet C that is well in tune. It’s on the quiet
side, nice tone.
I have a sweet Maple D. It’s an OK flute, not great. As I get to be a better player, I find that it plays better. Hmmm. What a surprise there. I think what I mean is that even though the price is low, I would not recommend this as a beginner flute, but an experienced player could get a nice sound out of it.
The sweet is very light, tone is on the reedy side, and like others have mentioned, is a pretty quiet flute. My biggest complaint is a sticker rather than the burned in “sweetheart” logo.
My favorite (relatively) inexpensive wooden flute is by Mark Hoza. Two piece with no slide or rings was $320 plus shipping from Oz. I’m extremely happy with this flute! I’ve got the large hole model. Nice tone, good volume, variety of tone colors, etc.
I have 4.5 years of flute playing. Take lessons on Boehm flute. Just tootle on my own on the wood flute. Despite being almost done with the first Rubank “advanced” book, I’d call myself a low level intermediate player.
I have a Ralph Sweet “Celtic Fife” in D, and it’s very good, especially considering the price. I used to have a one-key Baroque flute with A=415 and A=440, and it was ok as a starter instrument, but not a keeper.
I’ve heard people play some of Ralph’s Irish flutes, which really rocked. I’ve also heard people say bad things about them. There is a reputation of bad consistency.
If i were buying a Sweet flute on the Web, i’d buy it directly from him, because i’m pretty sure he’d take it back if it didn’t turn out good. It’s also interesting to email or call him. He’s really a nice guy, personally.
Thanks everyone for the replies and PMs, I’ll definately take them into consideration.
The shop I’m going to tomorrow has two of the Sweetheart flutes in stock. I’m taking a fiddle I bought there to either sell or trade. If I like one of the flutes, I’ll trade the fiddle in on it - should be about the same value. Otherwise, I’ll just sell it back to them and get something else like the CB folk flute.
Bob
Sounds like a good plan.
I have played many of the higher end flutes on the market and several Sweet flutes. I liked the maple and apple flutes the best, I found the rosewood to be too dark in tone. The flutes were however consistent and very reasonable for beginners.
Well everyone, I’m now the happy owner of a Sweetheart walnut flute. The shop had both one in maple and one in walnut, and I liked both the tone and looks of the walnut one.
I’m also now in the normal hold club with this flute. The finger spacing is very comfortable for my hands.
Thanks again,
Bob
Correction: the Sweetheart flute is made of Padouk, not walnut.
Bob