Years ago, I bought a tony dixon ‘plastic’ flute for around £40 and played that for a while, Then I thought I’d treat myself to a nice wooden flute, and bought a Glenluce keyless for ~£185. Having played it for about a year, I have decided that it’s no better than my first one. In fact in some ways, I am compelled to say that the cheaper of the two is better. In particular, I find that the Glenluce is quite breathy (or perhaps its just my poor playing…) What kind of reputation does Glenluce have?
So: recommendations? I play at a session, so a very quiet flute would not be good. I tried a de Keyser - which sounded nice, and seemed loud enough…
Depends on what you can pay. If you just scroll down this (and other pages), you will find
discussions of a number of good flutes that would probably fill your needs.
How much are you willing to pay?
What budget are we talking about here? And do you want to add keywork to the flute?
I play a Lehart now, and I can warmly recommend it. I have one in D with 5 keys (all except for the long F).
They cost €630 keyless (That is for the key of D and Eb)
-add €95 per key you want to have.
Gilles Lehart is a great guy. Very helpful and reliable.
I can also recommend the maker of my first flute, Dave Copley. It depends on exactly what you are looking for.
For the moment I am content to earn my spurs on a keyless flute. I think my absolute max is £500, which wolfram aplha tells me is US$836 and 558 euros.
My main disappointment with the Glenluce is ‘breathiness’ which I know for sure isn’t a problem with some other flutes I have tried. For session playing, a nice rich sound would be good.
Granted, I haven’t played a number of the flutes BigDavy lists, but the standout (for me) is Martin Doyle. If you can stretch your budget a bit, his Celtic-style blackwood with one ferule or his basic blackwood traditional style are 625 Euro. (The only difference between the two is cosmetic.)
Lehart would be another good European option.
And, as has been mentioned before, Dave Copley is a good US-based maker, and his all-wood flutes fall well within your budget. http://www.copleyflutes.com
And in all three cases, you won’t have to wait terribly long for a good flute.
I started in the same way, with a plastic Dixon. I then moved on to a M&E polymer that I’ve been playing for three years now and it’s a great instrument. Not the loudest flute in the world but it sounds and plays great. I don’t know how the M&E wooden ones are but judging by the one I have I’d say that mr Cronolly probably makes a terrific wooden flute aswell. (Might be added that the polymer ones he makes comes at a very reasonable price).
/Mattias
Sounds like a familiar story … ! I also started on a plastic Dixon, then moved to an M&E polymer. I only had the M&E for 4 months before I was lucky enough to get a pre-owned Olwell (keyless, Nicholson design), which is excellent (though I’ve just been stung for the import duty from the states )
The customs duty bit was why I restricted the list to European makers, at the price point Brother Swampicus was considering, the mark up for VAT, import duty and the Post Office charges, would be in the region of 22% on top of the cost of the flute plus delivery charges plus insurance.
This goes to a sort of problem. Folks often waste money at the beginning buying
inexpensive flutes that aren’t much good. There are good inexpensive
flutes but it certainly helps to know which they are. Alternatively one might
buy a seriously good flute and sell it if it doesn’t work out. Of course a good flute
increases one’s chances of success at flute playing. And one is likely
to keep it. The less expensive option, arguably.
)