Driving back from Pittsfield yesterday, Judy and I
stopped in Enfield Connecticut to see Ralph Sweet.
I bought two flutes, an A and an F, both Honduran rosewood.
The F has silver rings, it’s quite handsome. The
A is a darker color (I wish it had silver rings too, in fact).
I use a Sweet rosewood G a lot on the street.
Maybe these others will work there, too.
The A allows me to play in D, using the G fingering on
a D flute, which may come in handy sometimes
playing with other instruments. The A has a lovely
tone and it can carry alright, being high, but I
can also play it softly.
The F has the heft of a bigger flute, and some of the
depth and substance of a D flute, but it’s higher
and easier to finger.
Ralph has both these flutes in blackwood, but he thinks
that, while these flutes in rosewood sound slightly
different under the ear, they sound pretty much the
same to a listener. Certainly the rosewood flutes
sounded as good as the blackwood models, to me anyhow,
which cost more.
Neither is lined, but because of the higher pitch
they have very good volume indeed. Of course
both have only the tenon as a slide, and they are
in tune all the way in, so I can go flat but not sharp.
However I doubt very much that this will be
an inconvenience. I can’t imagine when I will play the
F with other instruments, and the A will be in tune
with them, I’m sure.
I’m pleased with these flutes; they’re simple and good,
perfectly in tune internally (to my ear), they sound
very good, and they are an extremely good value.
You can pay a great deal more for an F flute, and
it might sound better, possibly, but this F is quite good
as is, and it would be hard to beat the A. I’m persuaded
that, when it comes to higher pitched wooden flutes,
you can get quite good flutes without paying a lot
of money.
