Anyone have experience with Romy Benton bamboo flutes? I’ve been on his website, and although the website is a bit difficult to nagivate and somewhat cryptic. he workmanship seems excellent. He also has some strong opinions about major and minor keyed flutes. Let me know if you have experience with his flutes, and if so, what you think. Thanks.
-No playing experience but looked at them years ago at the Seattle Folklife Festival. The fellow running the Benton flute table played a nice storm of passages on one. I don’t recall it sounding Irish in tone, but its tone was quite nice. It sounded responsive and well tuned.
-They looked well made.
A search might help. I recall these being discussed
here.
Have 3. Love them. They play and sound great. They are different from most other flutes. The holes are all about the same size, so their spacing is not what you might expect. For instance, you may have to use your pinky on the bottom hole. Also, they may develop cracks on the outside as they are broken in. This has not been a problem at all and is expected. They don’t leak because they are bound with some sort of string. They just keep playing better and better, but it is disconcerting after playing flutes where a crack can be a very bad thing.
My preference: One with a wooden lip plate in a minor key.
My advice: Don’t expect it to be an Irish flute.
My, how quickly these things appear on Google! I’m not sure about the protocol regarding a direct response to an inquiry about me, but this is Romy Benton; I’ve been a C&F member for at least two years but have seldom visited or posted.
Although I’ve been known to make the occasional D Major flute, most of my instruments are indeed unconventional, and my occasional railing against tradition and convention can be off-putting; this stubborn curmudgeonly streak endears me to few in the Irish/Celtic flute community-- and I’m mostly Irish by blood, actually.
And yes-- my website is rather inscrutable, since it’s not set up as an overtly commercial flute-selling enterprise. I used to make hundreds of flutes a year in the old craft-show days but have downsized greatly thanks to the Internet, and that’s actually quite a relief.
Nowadays it’s just a flute or two here and there, but the quality of each instrument has certainly improved as the quantity plummeted, if you’ll pardon the mild plug! See y’all…
Hey, Hi!
I’ve enjoyed your blogs over the years!
M