Well I got the Sweetheart flute I won on e-bay and still can’t make up my mind what wood it is. it has an odd smell to it. It has a number etc on it and have e-mailed Sweetheart flutes twice now to see if Ralph could trace the age of it but not getting any answers. It’s a lovely flute but my left index finger is just a bit too arthritic to get over the B hole so willpossibly have to resell it later on. That problem was solved with the Dixon Tenor tuneable flute as Tony very kindly made me a whistle head to fit it so I can play it as a flute when fingers are good and whistle when they aren’t.
What’s the color?
It’s quite a light colour and I think it’s Maple when checking against the picture on http://www.sweetheartflute.com/flutes.html So hard to tell. The seller originally said Rosewood and then changed her description halfway through. I e-mailed the number on the flute to the company as I thought they could probably tell what colour it was. It’s almost like varnished pine or the colour of the old Schotts recorder.
Selkie - It sounds like maple. Ralph has always emailed back when I’ve sent him notes, and we really don’t know each other. Sometimes though, it can take a couple of days. Most of the U.S. east coast was shut down by a storm Monday & Tuesday, so they may be behind on things like email.
Eric
Maple is very light in color. The Sweetheart maple
D has the nicest sound, except, perhaps, for rosewood,
which costs more. One option might be to find something
to put on the bottom of the flute to make it
thicker at the left hand position, where it
rests on your hand. This will allow the finger
to close the hole without being so radically
bent. Classical flute players know about
such stick-ons.
I’m learning the concert flute by using a microphone stand and clamp to support the right end and a shoulder pad with a velcro strap to hold the left end. I am going to try to see if I can do something similar with the sweetheart flute which does have a lovely tone when I can get the B key covered.
Good for you. I have one of these and
enjoy it. Maple is surprisingly good stuff.
Sweet soaks it a couple of times in
tung oil, so that it doesn’t need so
much in the way of care. Possibly
that’s what you smell. Best