I wrote the review below nearly two months ago.
Since then I’ve played hell out this flute, and my
first impressions have been confirmed. It’s got
a gorgeous sound, it handles very well, it’s
expressive, the keys work fine, it isn’t heavy
but it has a sense of solidity and precision to
it.
The Olwell Pratten is more open, less focused,
perhaps slightly louder, the Gallagher is more
focused, a bit closer to the Nicholson end of
things.
Anyhow if you want a first class keyed flute
in a finite amount of time, I think it would
be hard to go wrong with these. I haven’t played
em all, but you would have to be a bit
crazy not to like this flute.
I wrote:
The Seth Gallagher six key Pratten I bought from Brazenkaine
arrived this morning by express mail, a day late.
It is a lovely flute, in fact. It’s beautifully crafted and
finished. The keys are nicely done and it has a rt hand
Bb touch, which I think will prove pretty handy.
The sound is very interesting. I have a Byrne Rudall
and an Olwell keyless Pratten, and playing them both
has driven me a bit crazy. The Byrne has a lovely, fine
focused sound and a very sweet second octave. The Olwell
is loud and warm, with lots of immediacy, if I can say that.
It’s reedy and it has great volume, and its got the low
D from hell. Torn between them, you see.
Of the two I have found I gravitate recently more to the Byrne,
which is no reflection on the Olwell; it’s just me.
I searched the archives for comments on Seth’s flute,
when I was considering trying to purchase this one, and
found some comments from Jessie K, who liked these
flutes a lot. She said the Gallagher Pratten she played
was more of a Nicholson (meaning the Olwell flute which
is intermediate between his Pratten and his Rudall). I’ve
never played one of these, sadly, but I thought the Gallagher
might do it. And it seems to me, first impressions, it does.
The tone is fine, more focused, and there’s a lovely sweet
second octave–though there is no question that the
flute is closer to the Pratten end of things.
The tone holes are a bit smaller than on the Olwell, but
the embouchure hole is bigger. It has, I think, a bit
less volume than the Olwell, but plenty of volume,
and I suppose this is going to increase as I play it.
It has a very good hard low D.
Above all the Gallagher flute has a fine sound; it’s
utterly professional, the sort of thing you would
perform on. It’s a bit more ‘inner’ and controlled,
but the sort of inner where one feels that pressing
on the flute will have very good results.
Very nice flute, IMO. I’ll chime in again if anything changes.