Sweet Shannon

Irish Flute
1

Hi All,

Anyone care to share their experience, love-hate relationship with the Sweet Shannon flute.

I’m considering getting one as a travel flute and am wondering all the usual stuff. Intonation, volume, tone, response, air requirements etc., etc.

Thanks in advance,

Piper Joe

2

Great flute…probably the biggest and nicest bang for your limited bucks out there. Intonation spot on, great voume. Personally, I would get one with inline holes…I can’t stand offset holes which is his standards.

3

The sound hole sizes and placings mostly match my Olwell RnR boxwood. To my very satisfied ear the Shannon has a better, sweeter, ‘flooty’ tone than the Olwell, too.

The air vibrates under my fingers, the low D in particular, ( though my old Tipple’s low D beats all all my other 10 flutes, including my Olwell blackwood Pratten). This flute played right out of the mail parcel. Now it gets better every day, needing little breath but can bellow when tasked.

Because the end cap includes the delrin ‘cork’ I can take it out to drop a cloth pull-through along the complete length of the flute interior, and wipe the moisture off the end of that ‘cork’. Pushing the end cap back in through two air tightening rubber gaskets places the stopper into its perfectly tuned setting. Ingenious - and so are the rubber gaskets on the tuner, which is set for perfect tuning with two outer gaskets that set the gap exactly where you can leave it already set.

I suggest the other modern modifications, careful hand cut embouchure and sound holes, plus the fact it’s delrin and can be left ready to go without further ado in any climate, puts this handsome beauty at the forefront of today’s simple style flute design and playability. It plays any style of music (but I don’t play jazz), with exactitude, emotion and style in complete relaxation throughout the octaves. The Shannon is outstanding, at any price

Best wishes,
K.

4

I think these are terrific flutes. FWIW,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgX_ieOLN_k

5

I have one and I am very happy with it. My flute has the offset holes which I find very comfortable.

6

Thanks to all who took the time to share your knowledge.

I found a used one on eBay, price was a bit high for used but a generous trial period.

Again, thanks to all… :thumbsup:

Piper Joe

7

I bought one to “learn” on two years ago. I am still exploring it’s wide range of sounds. Ergonomically it is very comfortable for me. I was surprised when I bought it the amount of hand work on the sound holes and embouchure. It is right in tune though. The only complaint that I have is that you can only tune it a small amount with the tenon being pulled out at 4mm or so for 440. So if you play substantially flat because of rolling the flute in for a darker tone, you don’t have a lot of space to compensate. Other than that it is good and solid up to d3.

8

rogervj,

Good to hear, thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:

Piper Joe

9

The Shannon just arrived and this thing is nothing short of amazing.

I now see what you were all raving about! :thumbsup:

Thanks again to all of you who took the time to share with me…it’s greatly appreciated.

What a marvelous community we have here. :smiley:

Piper Joe