I remember reading someone saying that some units of the Firth-Pond type flute from Sweetheart flutes could sound rough, while other units sound wonderful.
Is there a way to quickly tell if a particular flute of this model is rough or sweet sounding?
I initiated a brief discussion of these flutes a short while ago. Here’s the link for what it’s worth.
where did you read that about his flutes?
i have no experience with sweetheart’s firthppond inspired model, be interested in reading about it.
about the only way i know of to tell a sweet or rough sounding flute is to blow the flutes individually. i imagine sweetheart’s firthpond inspired model would tend toward a sweet sound overall, and hopefuly he keeps some consistency among the indiviual flutes.
sometimes the upper three toneholes in the second register can be tough to manage on flutes and the sweetness in the tone difficult to achieve.
Hi rama, I read this in one of the threads in this forum. I seem to remember someone saying that Sweet does not sand flute bore enough. Nanohedron (in the thread KateG refers to) says that while overall workmanship can be variable, the sound quality is consistently good.
I played the clips for this flute posted on the Sweetheart flute site. I must say I rather like the sound, though I am a wood flute newbie and may not be a good judge. If only the clips were a bit longer.
I have been looking for a flute with a slightly harder and focused tone than the typical wood flute, which tends to sound too soft for my tastes. The Sweetheart Firth-Pond flute has a nice clear tone that seems well defined across the scales. The description says it reaches the 3rd octave B - which is just one note below the top range of the best flutes that can achieve a 4th octave C.
LarkInTheMorning sells a Blackwood 6-key Pratten Style by Sweet. Is this a mistake? This model is not mentioned on the SweetheartFlute site.
that six-keyed pratten inspired model may have been something ralph made and discontinued at one point. i have seen a few of them. i believe it was essentially the typical keyless model jazzed up a bit, with the a tuning slide and keys added on, and of course blackwood.
the soundclips of the sweetheart firthpond inspired model on sweetheart’s website seem to sound like a good crisp tone, worth looking into a bit more. i hope because this particuliar model is different than his more standard one, there maybe a possibility of more consistency among flutes. it seems like it’s worth checking out some more. might be your cup of tea after all.
call ralph. he might better inform you. he’s a good guy.
Rama is right - Ralph’s a great guy so a call to him will likely answer many of your questions.
FWIW - I still like my 4 key, and it’s bore is nicely polished and not rough at all. Jim Stone once mentioned that all the Sweet flutes he’s played in the past couple years have been consistently well made - maybe the inconsistency issue has been addressed. I don’t recall seeing anyone say a more recent vintage (past 2-3 years) Sweet flute has had problems.
Eric
eric, seems like you you are really bonding quite well with that sweetheart! i bet you are right about the evolution of his flutemaking becoming more consistent. that seems true of so many of the other makers as well.
i remember visiting him a long time ago. he brought me to racks of his flutes ,‘d’,‘c’, ‘f’, fifes, whistles, and a dog on the floor. he said he had to go and would be back ina couple of hours. so he left me to try as many as i wanted. he went down to his little dance hall and was playing piano or something while i stayed up in the room with all those flutes (torturing the dog) !
salt-of-the-earth man i’d say.
I have this flute. I got it about a month ago, when I decided to get serious about this flute stuff, right before I joined up here and Andrew K called me a convict. 
Here’s a very short recording with three Sweetheart flutes, to compare: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~shannonschumann/Sweethearts.wav
Since I"m not the greatest player in the world, I posted all three so you’d have a baseline of comparison. (if that even makes sense…).
I am working through the Grey Larson’s book, and I think I’m playing #5 of his 49 exercises. And I am still struggling with the weight of the blackwood, compared to the lighter rosewood flutes.
flutipi cutiepie,
unfortunately i can’t listen to the links.
are you referring to andrew’s statement ‘…contributor using either their social security number or jail id as their signature…’ ?
that is not calling you a convict. is there another posting that i am missing that contains the name calling?
Thanks fluti!!! Very interesting. Now, to me, the Firth-Pond does not seems as loud as the two Rosewoods. Is that the way it sounds to you? Is the Firth Pond a quieter flute or did you just hold the flute further away from the mic?
Also, based on your recording, the Firth Pond has a softer tone (more reedy or woodier) than the Rosewoods. Do you hear it that way too?
Something wrong with that sound file, for me. It set up what looks like an empty web page and it won’t let me nuke it.
The F&P does sound quieter to me, but that could easily be distance from the mike. Otherwise, they sound very similar IMHO.
Eric
Hi Jayhawk,
The softer tone I hear from the F&P flute could also be due to the mic being further away (eg, higher frequencies (harmonics) tend to be absorbed in the air more easily than the lower frequencies.
The F&P flute is a smaller flute - along the lines of Chris Norman’s beloved RR flute. And on his recordings, that flute does have a muted or woodier quality, so it might be that the smaller flutes are woodier by nature?
I need to listen to Grey Larsen’s F&P flute more carefully too (I have his flute/whistle book, but am currently working on tunes in Bill Ochs’ tutorial). However, Larsen’s flute has a new headjoint by Chris Abell and there is a cut-away above the embouchure hole that may sharpen the sound a bit. Terry McGee seemed to confirm this in another thread on the topic.
Headwizer - you may be right about the smaller bore=woodier sound.
I think the clips of the F&P sound good even though I still think the player is the biggest influence on sound (not to start that debate again 
).
Eric
Yes, it was that one. But I did not take offense – it was kind of funny.
I recorded the file as a .wav – is there a better way to do it?
Yes, when I play them, the FP sounds woodier. It is also easier to get kind of a huff on the cut if I want. I don’t think the mic was farther away for the FP. I am still not getting the best sound out of it yet. On a good day, it sounds much nicer than the other two, but I don’t consistently have good days with it yet.
One thing that is interesting is that I was never able to get a good sound out of the two rosewoods until I started playing the FP. I was finally able to get my first good sound on it, and then I was able to transfer it to the two rosewood flutes more consistently. I think I am not as consistent with the FP because it is heavier. So I’ll keep you all updated through the months, if you want.
Also – If there’s a better way to post that .wav file, please let me know, and I’ll switch that around.
well as you may not know, andrew got banned from this site because people accused him of such things. but in their case, they felt insulted. and as we are discovering, the insult may very well be an invention of their own imagination! at least you accept the humor in it. good sport! you give mathematicians a good rep. i wish my high school algebra teacher had a sense of humor.
anyway, i like nano, can’t seem to get a successful link to your site. i don’t know if the cause is because it’s a .wav file or not.
i appreciate your concern, but i guess i will have to wait for your cd to come out!
seems i have trouble linking to other links from this forum. the problem must be at my end.
The link worked for me using Windows Media Player, Real Player and Winamp.
Youse guys got .wav wired to something?
Denny
i just get that error page ‘page not found’. i guess it doesn’t find the webage that it is being pointed to. not that important for me. so long as the mighty headwizer gets to the link and hears the soundclips.
The link worked for me, using the embedded Quicktime player. Good playing fluti. Which book is this that you are working from? I’m just starting flute myself and though it is a great deal of fun to play along with records and the like, something more structured might be good.
And because I can’t help myself:
Actually he got banned, as far as I can see, for a consistent history, stretching back to his previous screen name, of being insulting, and it seemed the last straw was being insulting/condescending to Dale. And if you go back to that last thread of his, you’ll notice that all the suspect posts were edited, and all around the same time. Someone was hiding evidence, it seems. Attacking the Administrator is a really great way to get yourself banned on any forum, and chalking his behavior up to “being British” or whatever is just silly. British or not, he’s just very badly mannered, and hopefully he learned his lesson.