I own a Doyle two-piece flute with a cork tenon and no tuning slide.
I dearly love this flute which I purchased from the lovely Miss (oops Mrs!) Jessie. It is as good or better than some much costlier flutes I have known. I do however occasionally wonder if somewhere in the wide world there may be an even better flute.
While I’m sure none of the rest of you are tormented with such inner demons, I occasionallly toy with the idea of purchasing another flute from one of the Demi-gods of flutedom.
My concern is that I really love … I mean really, really, love the simple design of this instrument.
I once owned a lovely flute by one of the lofties and, while it was in every way quite wonderful, I nearly went mad with all the taking apart and putting together shinnanigans of a five-piece instrument (I am, after all, a simple soul).
My question is which of the big shots make a two-piece flute and is there any price to be paid in sound quality, power etc in not having a five-piece arrangement.
I would think that with fewer sockets and tenons, you have less occasion for turbulence (depending on the fit), and so a stronger and easier playing flute.
BTW, Doc, that M&E RR (albeit a 5-piece) is going great guns!
Hey that reminds me of a flute that was discussed here a while back. It is made by a whistle maker whose name escapes me right now(senior moment I call it). But I do remember they were two piece flutes and the word was they were realy nice flutes at a realy nice price. I hope someone remembers the thread cause I am looking for a flute in G and I think he makes one. Jeez Doc that doesnt help you a bit does it. I have mentioned this before but my Dixon rosewood although a 3 piece flute is realy a very nice instrument. There is no tuning slide so the head isnt lined which I like a lot. It is quite capable of expressing just about any mood I am in and I love the tone. Though I think Tony is so busy making the plastic 3 piece that he isnt making the wooden ones right now. But Im not sure. I dont see any reason why a 2 piece flute would suffer from not being disected into 4 or 5 pieces. You wouldnt be able to adjust the holes around for comfort but heck we can adapt to just about anything.
But Im sure those with more experience will be jumping in here so Ill just sit and listen. (hoping someone remembers the guy I can`t)
Take care
I’ve heard of makers (Olwell and McGee specifically - I’m sure there are others), who have made Prattens with a two-peice body as opposed to the traditional one-piece in interest of the player’s comfort. I don’t see why they wouldn’t do the same in reverse for you.
Seems to me to be less work over all (less metal-work for rings and fewer tenons to be sweated over). I think most of the established makers are pretty open for customizations of this nature.
Well, it’s much harder to find a straight piece of wood long enough for the whole flute body, and it’s also much harder to ream one long piece than several shorter pieces. There’s some work saved in not having to do the tenons, but having to work with the really long reamers probably offsets that.
I think that was Fred Rose, Blackbeer. A search on Rose flutes will probably turn it up in the archives.
More recently, there was another thread re: Maurice Reviol’s flutes, which I think were also two piece and fairly low-priced. You might look there, as well. You too, Doc.
Yep that was who it was. Thanks Herbivore. One nice thing about old age and memory loss is that when a horse steps on me today I wont remember it tomorrow............. At least thats what Im hopeing. Sometimes I think I should have picked smaller horses to work with. These drafts are heavy…
Being also a simple soul I struggle with taking apart and putting together
multiple piece flutes. But I’ve decided that
I will bite the bullet and do it. That’s an option.
Once one makes up one’s mind, it gets
easier.
There used to be a guy at http://www.cavewinds.com who made nice looking one-piece aluminum flutes, but all attempts to contact him in the past year have been fruitless.
Mark Hoza makes a two piece flute. I have one and like it even though he isn’t one of the big shots. You could go to Ralph Sweet’s place and search for one of his really good ones. Doesn’t Skip Healy sell a more ‘student model’ that is a two piece design? Yes he does, www.skiphealy.com “is instrument has the same embouchure, bore, and tone hole set up as the three-piece flute”.
Nearly everybody offers a three piece design. I don’t find it too bothersome to put together a three piece flute.
I’m really not sure what is gained by having more joints. It’s just more joints to leak, or stick, or wobble around. It gives you more places to put pretty silver rings.
I do agree with Glauber’s observation about smaller pieces and shorter reamers. Many baroque flutes are/were in multiple pieces to allow swapping sections to change tuning.
But does a two-piece (ie Healy, Olwell or whatever) sound just as good as the standard?
Doc
By the way Jason, glad you’re liking the M&E I quite liked it too, just don’t need the keys. As for being a five-piece..doesn’t matter 'cause it’s polymer and you don’t have to take it apart.
I’ve heard flutesmiths say that when you
get to keyed flutes, anyway, shorter pieces
enable you to save more of your work
if something goes wrong further down the
barrel. Possibly something like this pertains
to keyless flutes, too.
Mark Hoza says his does. He says he puts at much into cutting the headjoint of the no-ring, no-slide model I bought as he does in his full featured flute.
Other makers will probably answer this question honestly. The Healy web site says his simpler model has the “same embouchure” as his full featured flutes. I don’t think many of these makers want to put their name on less than their best work.
. Guess you’ll just have to contact the makers you’re interested in, Doc