Sweetheart Flute Co. is currently cleaning out their closet and selling off some older products and collections at very attractive prices!
http://www.sweetheartflute.com/SaleItems.html
Happy New Year!
I thought I’d chime in and say a few words about the best flute deal I have ran across in my life and get the word out about Ralph Sweet’s flute clearance sale.
I have visited Raplh’s shop a few times over the years and to be honest I thought there were better flutes out there but on the time before this I was surprised by his firth and hall model which was new at the time. It played very differntly from his other models.
On my preveious visits both over eight years ago or so I was not playing the flute as my primary instrument and was into easy forgiving flutes because I had not tightened up my playing yet. Also in the past people had influenced me by saying that Sweet flutes were not up there with the better makers. Just goes to show how we shouldn’t listen to people who are not experienced players word on flutes and realize that often assesments are made of instruments that are not properly warmed up or the player has not had an hour or so on thier own outside of a session to evaluate the instrument.
A few weeks ago I visited the Ralph’s shop to have some repair work done. I had some extra cash so I thought about picking up an F flute having recenty gotten rid of a Cloos F because I wasn’t playing it much. Luckily I checked Ralph’s website the night before going down and saw he had a bunch of stuff on a clearance sale so I brought some cash.
I played a variety of stuff Ralph had set out for a friend and I including a great Boosey which he has since sold to some lucky board member (I see this lucky board member is now selling the flute on for double the price to be fair I thought Ralph had it underpriced but Doulble(?). Also a four key older model sweet model that had a great feel to it. It has been said on this board that one should go and pick out a sweet flute as some are better than others. The flutes that I ended up with were ones that have been left in the shop and not “handpicked” by others over the years. The one’s I chose I had a good go on but I wasn’t taking it very seriously and picked quickly and not really as opposed to others there.
I walked away with an F in cherry, a G in cherry and an Eb in Paduok (sp?) all for 130 dollars. It wasn’t until I got home that I really discovered these were amazing instruments. I have not enjoyed any flutes as much as these in ages.
The Eb is the strangest beast. It was apparently a prototype Ralph thought, as there is an extra ring of Paduok (about an inch) added after the final ring. Ralph had to lenghthen the bore to get it in tune. This flute I picked up as more of a lark than anything because of the price. It has become the flute that I can’t put down. It vibrates more in the hand than any flute I’ve ever played. Paduok also seems like an unlikely flute wood as it has sort of long grain (sort of looks leaky to me) but it does that job .The embouchure hole is very on the small side (surprisingly smaller than the f and only a little larger than the g). I would have thought this would be a quiet flute but its amazingly loud and vibrant.
Here is a video of the Eflat, the f and g videos are taking forever to upload onto youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrmfzICZ6Qg
The cherry flutes are the same. I would have thought not the best wood for flutes but they do the job very well. I suppose videos are better than me bragging on about them.
I am so surprised with these flutes my recomendation is if there are any left grab them and there were a load of piccolos too which aren’t my favorite instrument. And to the Sweets they should continue to make a lower price (maple or cherry flute) (I should mention these low prices were clearance items) especially in f and g as no player should be without one of these f to mess with. oh and I think the sweets calls these folk fifes.
Grrrrr…I do not need any more flutes! Will—not—buy—Will—not–buy— 
Here is a demo of the f in cherry, the g is still uploading,
patrick, thanks for your videos!
i already have f rosewood flute from mr. sweet, and now i place order from g flute from honduras rosewood.
unfortunatelly, his f cocobolo flute was already gone…
thanks to you now i able to listen his instruments made from cherry.and eb flute sound great too!
marin
Hi there g flute video is up on youtube now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCNri60vX10
I also wanted to say Ralph has a really good player in his shop whos working on voicing the whistles and other stuff in the shop and the guy who did the repair work did a very nice job (sorry guys I can’t remember the names but thanks) and as usual for a very fair price
Well, I went ahead and ordered the Renaissance flute. There’s been some discussion of them on the Earlyflute list, and I’ve been itching to try one out. At 40 bucks, it’s a pretty low-risk trial.
Hey Chas,
That’s Funny! 
I grabbed a Renaissance flute too!
I’ve long wanted to try one and thought this was the opportunity.
WELL DONE DUNN! I really like your playing on the Sweet F. I believe I sold you the George Cloos F and sent it to Andorra (had me wishing I could’ve gone with the flute)!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! 
Hello Sillydil,
The Cloos flute did go to Andorra and then made its way to Lanzarote. I ended up not playing on the stage only as a solo instrument because it was not very loud, liked it for practice though. Someone in Ireland was buying a very damaged Lehart flute off me and I threw in the F flute as an extra so at least they’d have something new to play when they opened the box. Love the Sweet flutes. G is the key. I didn’t think I’d like to go above F but it is a blast to play.
Take Care