I’m pretty new on here, and I’m new to the world of Irish music, as well. As I am from Austria, I usually play a Böhm type of flute, but have recently discovered the tin whistle on youtube via a couple of bag pipes links. Reading up on the tin whistle brought me here in the first place, and I’m already annoying my neighbours on a simple Generation high D. Yeah, that’s all nice and well, but having seen your beautiful wooden flutes here, this nasty little feeling somewhere in my chest emerged. I want one of those!
Somehow I want it to be the complete opposite of my metal flute.
Wooden, small, keyless, simple.
And, not too expensive, as my budget for new instruments is unfortunately limited.
I’ve already seen the Dixon whistles with the flute head. Also interesting, but not woody enough.
I hope you can direct me to a couple of places, I’m happy with links.
Try the Makers List/see Sticky Thread at top of this Forum, though the version there is even more out of date than the one I’ve linked here. (Another job for me to fix next month when I finish my Accounts and tax return!) Plenty of makers of all sorts to browse there, and you’ll learn loads in the process. Best of luck with it!
since you are from austria, and you want wooden flute i suggest you to look for gilles lehart flute. he lives in france, and make great flute for moderate price of 630 euros.on you tube you could find several clips played on his flutes …
marin
i saw that his price for keyless flute is 660 euros now.one of his advantage is very short delivery time ( 2-3 months), although now ( thanks to recesion…) delivery time is short from all makers…
i have gilles flute since 1994 and haven’t any problem with his flute …
marin
Welcome to C&F, Nachteule. There’s a wealth of great information here.
Based on your criteria, you could do a whole lot worse than one of Casey Burns’ folk flutes. He makes them in blackwood, boxwood and mopane, and they’re fine players. You can find them here: http://www.caseyburnsflutes.com/ff.php, and his price is very, very good, at about 280 euro plus shipping. You might contact him and ask if any of his folk flutes are in Austria. If so, then you might be able to contact the owners and get a shot at playing one.
Stoop here before is too late!
my Boehm flute has been melted down long time ago…after I met the wooden one.
starting with an old sistem flute could break your finances, your heart and make you too happy…
be aware…
i’m with Dow, unless you have concerns about caring for wood, get a CB folk flute. new, they cost $375. that’s insanely cheap.
he’s probably not allowed to say, so i’ll mention Doc has one for sale over at the Irish Flute store website; i’m sure he’d ship it to Aussie land for you. (unless you want a new one, Doc’s got his for sale for $375, so he’s not saving you any money, just moving you ahead on the wait list
if you haven’t taken care of a wood instrument, you might consider one of the delrin Forbes flutes for sale on this board. Amazing flute, made of virtually indestructible delrin, you can see a video of Kevin Crawford playing one here:
Thanks a lot for your help guys! That was a lot of information I guess it’s going to take some time for me to make up my mind, especially as I can’t try them out.
I’ll let you know which ones made it on the short list.
Schwegelpfeife? Just saying. You still got a living tradition in the countries of the Alps of these wooden, small, keyless and simple sideblown flutes. http://members.yline.com/~arizona/heute.htm
As for the bigger ones used in Irish trad:
If you can get to Basel, you could look up Thomas Aebi, who makes great wooden flutes, keyless and keyed, in low D, Eb and Bb, usually in boxwood or blackwood. http://www.aebi-flutes.com/
woops; i’m sorry; i didn’t read close enough, i thought you were in Australia (thanks Liney Bear : ); if you’re in Austria, that does maybe change this a bit.
the CB and the Forbes are great flutes at great prices, but if you’re in Europe you might want to look at a maker close to home (saves on shipping charges and easier for repairs). i would recommend François Baubet; i haven’t had a chance to try one of his flutes yet, but i emailed him back and forth and he seems like a person that would help you; his flutes look gorgeous and sound good from what i’ve heard:
his flutes are 450 euro, which is a bit more than the CB or Forbes, but include a tuning slide, which the CB folk flute and Forbes do not. and 450 is a lot cheaper than 700-800, which is about what most makers charge for a keyless flute with a tuning slide (Thomas Aebi charges 1850 CHF for an equivalent flute, which is about 1400 euro–not that his flutes aren’t worth it, but that’s obviously a much bigger investment : )
you might also consider Dominic Allen, he’s a bit farther away (UK i think) but he offers a “student flute” for 165 pounds. (!!!) again, i haven’t tried one, but inquired about them, and he seems willing to answer questions.
No worries, that happens all the time on the internet on, well, international boards!
But Dominic Allen’s student flutes seem perfect! They’re made of cherry or pear (i have a couple of pear recorders which I love) and they’re very reasonably priced. ^^ He also has sound clips! Probably I should’ve checked those out before getting all excited.
Edit: Oh, he doesn’t. His myspace account was deleted. Doesn’t sound too good. Probably he’s out of business ^^
I doubt Dominic ceased flute making. Try give him a ring during daytime. He is very approachable. I’ve got two flutes from him, a keyless Eb and a fully keyed D, both S1 models and very good flutes, made of highest quality craftmanship and with lovely tone.
He is a member here too: Dominic Allan
http://djallan.co.uk/page3.htm - scroll down to the section on “STUDENT FLUTES”. I haven’t actually played one of these, but I have met a couple of Dom’s flutes and was impressed by them. For the price (£165+ postage) and with the trade-in deal, these have to be very serious rivals to Casey’s Folk Flutes, especially in the European market.
Many good used flutes out there that need to be played. Some people like to revive old instruments and sell them. I figure if it is worth restoring, it is worth playing.
I like the lines of the Djallan flute, thread and cork be damned. Seems his quality control is a bit off though, one flute looks shorter than the others. Joking aside, if I did not have a flute, I would want to buy that.
Reading up on the tin whistle brought me here in the first place, and I’m already annoying my neighbours on a simple Generation high D. Yeah, that’s all nice and well, but having seen your beautiful wooden flutes here, this nasty little feeling somewhere in my chest emerged. I want one of those!
