My vote goes to Doug Tipple, and here I am adding the lip plate and the Fajardo-Tipple wedge.
For performance versus price, can anybody top that?
C’mon!
I have to agree, although my sampling is a bit limited.
Doug has it,
given that Pat O. has quit making bamboo flutes
Let me add that the drawbacks to the Tipple flute are:
- Holes are really big and far apart
- People make a lot of comments and ask a lot of questions. “That looks like PVC pipe” “Is that really PVC pipe?” “I think I’ll go home and make one of those! How hard could it be?”
suffering the uninformed builds character 
Not played a Tipple yet, but my vote has to go to M&E (what else?). Even though I’ve played numerous top notch flutes including McGee, Hammy and Grinter, I’m constantly amazed at the great bang of the M&E. The only thing I have against it is the looks, but for $400 (or whatever it is), come on! Can’t top that.
Another consideration, I’m not listing this as a drawback because it really isn’t, is the old style tuning. Great for solo stuff, but if you get into recording and stuff with a band, then a modern scale is a lot easier and cleaner. That’s also the reason why I play a Seery for all band work these days.
If I buy a fancy-pants, top notch instrument, it’s going to be mostly for the looks…
Hard to top my M&E…but include bucks and Tipple has it …no contest !
In ‘bang-for-the-buck’ category, Tipple is unsurpassed. I like some other flutes better, but if I had never found them, I’d be just fine with the Tipple. It costs about the same as a tank of gasoline.
I should receive a Copley delrin in the next few days. It sells for $350. I say, should receive as it is the same flute that went missing in the mail. Yesterday, Doc got it back from USPS and the package was marked “unclaimed”.
I will be glad to follow up with a review. The only flutes I can compare it to are a Copley session flute and a CB Pond & Firth. Cyril.
Great!
The idea here is to generate a list of high quality yet low cost flutes as currently available, especially with the person in mind who is looking for a first flute, but who doesn’t want to make a large commitment of money.
Your opinion, please!
Thanks, everyone, for the positive comments about my flutes. With regard to the second quote above, there is nothing that I can do about the plumbing pipe comments. Sorry about that, folks.
I do want to say something about the first comment. The recent thread on the flute forum about flute finger hole sizes and layout got me thinking more about this. I get a lot of questions about how difficult my flutes may be to finger for a prospective buyer. Rather than having to answer each person in full on every occasion, I have a FAQ page at my website where I attempt to answer the most common questions. I just finished writing another page about this subject, and I have the link to that page below, if you are interested. I am open to public feedback about the page, as well.
http://dougsflutes.googlepages.com/flutefingerholecomparison
This discussion also seems to be a discussion about materials used - some types of material are obviously cheaper than others, which lowers the overall cost. So, on that note, let me put in my vote for the Casey Burns Folk Flute - arguably the best wooden flute at an entry-level price point. Certainly excellent “bang-for-the-buck” if you want wood.
Peter
Despite the holes being big and far apart. I went at this flute saying to myself every day “I will get this”. And I did. I can now play the flute no problemo. But I have to admit smaller and closer holes do make some ornaments much easier for me. Strangely, my fingers sometimes get stuck, like suction cup stuck, if the holes are smaller.
i’d go with the M&E, i have a Seery that gets more play time, but tone wise, i like the M&E better.
Sweetheart is a good bang for the buck as well, but they are not very consistent, you’d have to pick on out of a pile.
I have a pretty wonderful bamboo flute from Billy Miller ($65). The drawback is, of course, it can’t be tuned. It plays great, though not incredibly loud (get’s a bit lost in a session). It’s beautiful to look at as well.
I am really digging my Billy Miller bamboo D as well, though I’ve made some minor adjustments to the embouchure hole and the end of the flute to make the low D less flat. It plays great from low D to second octave G. It’s major drawback for me right now is the second octave A and B are quite flat (Tipple’s flute with the wedge definitely wins there).
I found the Billy Miller flute, also, an excellent transition flute from silver Boehm flute to wood/simple system flute. I tried the Tipple flute but found it was very uncomfortable for me and hard to play due to the 1)small embouchure hole; and 2) the very wide diameter/width of the flute on top of the large hole sizes and spacing made the flute too big of jump for me coming from the silver flute. Billy’s flute is thinner in width, hole sizes and spacing and bit smaller (though comparing it to the others mentioned lately it’s still pretty large and wide), embouchure hole larger.
I’ve experienced reasonably good consistency, and more, with Sweetheart flutes, and currently I have several of them, but maybe I’ve just been lucky.
Then again, I don’t hold them to a high, concert standard. I simply like them for what they can do, and so far, so good.
What is the biggest flute bang for the lowest price?
If you’re a new player, I think this is the wrong question to ask. I think the question should be, “what is the biggest flute bang for the cash that you can spare?”.
Flutes that score well on the Bang-for-the-buck-o-meter for less than $300:
Tipple - Fabulous price great tone tone, tunable, cylindrical*
Hammy Practice Flute - great price and tone, fingers very like other Irish flutes, not tunable, cylindrical but narrower so you really don’t notice.
Billy Miller bamboo great price and tone, not tunable, cylindrical*
Olwell Bamboo now costing upwards of $200, great tone, not tunable cylindrical*
Dixon** Conical 3 piece - good price for a conical, delrin, sort-of-tunable flute
Burns Folk flute - Great price for a wooden conical mostly tunable flute with amazing sound.
*cylindrical flutes tend toward larger holes farther apart.
** probably have to get a used one to stay under $300
Doc
Suppose a new player had, say, a large fortune to invest. Perhaps then it simply comes down to just who makes the best flute, bar none. However, assuming that a person looking for a first flute might not be willing to invest a large fortune…