polymer flutes

Irish Flute
1

are seery and cronnolly flutes easier to play loud than wooden flutes, and which of the two is louder?

2

I’d say: “No”, and “about the same”, although with regards to that last, it is my opinion that the better wooden flutes, of large the holed and generous size bore size variety, will be capable of a bit more volume in the right hands, for reasons having to do with workmanship, materials, and wall thickness issues that I won’t get into in detail.

Loren

3

I agree with Loren that in general they’re no easier to play and just as loud. I would add the Seery has a more demanding embouchure than the M & E, so if I were starting out I’d probably go with the M & E.

Eric

4

Right. As to the first question, my seery is/was loud enough,
but the Copley louder.

5

Hi Seanny -

I agree with Jayhawk (…Rock Chalk…BTW)

I have an M & E polymer and it is a CRACKER! I love it.

I’m new to the flute (6 mos.; been whistling for about 4 years), and it did take some time, about 2-3 weeks, for me to get a good ‘full’ sound, but with practice it has come along very well.

I’m no longer working so much on timbre and volume as on speed and tempo.

Honestly, I have never played a Seery (or any other trad style flute), but I can tell you that the Cronnolly has been an OUTSTANDING first flute for a noob.

Highly recommended :thumbsup:

LEE

6

I’d have to second that. When I was comparing all the combinations I had, the M&E was the “loudest” Rudall (directly comparable to my “geezer” of the same dimensions in wood …havn’t had a Seery…and didn’t try one of the realy big holed Rudalls) It’s only about 1db less (barely noticable) than the Noy “Pratten” which has slightly larger holes and the bone insert. The M&E has a nice embouchure…not quite “classical”

The loudest of all (beating the Hammy and Healy) was the Noy head stuck on the Healy…

Edit afterthought:
Since I had the Noy and the M&E out this morning (2 flute practice) I just retried the comparison (fortunately hasn’t changed) and added the “Delft” ceramic (not quite in tune) which has small holes. Surprise ! It’s just as loud as the other two…(louder than the small-holed Rudall ) The emboucher is suspiciously close to that of the M&E…

7

Ceramic is wicked loud! I have a ceramic flute that’s ear splitting - really while it has tons of volume though, I’m not crazy about tonal qualities, it’s rather brittle sounding.

As for the results of putting the Noy head on the Healy, it really is interesting what you come up with when you try different combinations (different makers) of Headjoints and Bodies - very instructional, in some cases.


Loren

8

Yes, ceramic flutes, IMExperience, anyhow, are
very loud, and they have an acrid brittleness
to the sound.

9

The term “polymer” is a general term for plastic. There is a wide range of different plastic materials that can be used for making flutes, such as, ABS plastic, various kinds of pvc (poly vinyl chloride), cpcv (a chlorinated pvc), and delrin, a very dense plastic, to name a few of the plastics that are commonly used for instrument making. Therefore, I think that it would be hard to characterize the sound characteristics (tone and volume) of polymer flutes in general, since there are so many variables, such as the density of the material and the construction of any particular flute. I think that it is safe to say that loud and very good sounding flutes can be made from polymer materials.