William (Billy) Miller - Windwood Flutes - i'm thrilled

Irish Flute
1

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to post to share a very pleasant experience that i’ve very recently had with a purchase of several bamboo flutes. I’ve recently been added to the substitute player list for a Disney musical on Broadway which requires a number of bamboo flutes. When I started my search my colleagues suggested that I contact Patrick Olwell directly. After a conversation with Mr. Olwell I found out that he wasnt able to complete the order for me and wasnt making bamboo instruments any longer. Fortunately he was able to refer me to Billy Miller. I am more than thrilled. the instruments are wonderfully crafted, in-tune, stable and incredibly responsive.

As a dealer of fine vintage and modern Boehm instruments I can sincerely appreciate fine work and excellent “customer service” - i’m quite a tough client I must admit. After reading some of the posts about some of the horrible firewood thats being offered in the form of flutes nowadays I wanted to share my experience everyone. Thank you Patrick Olwell for the reccommendation, and thank you Billy Miller (www.windwoodflutes.com) for crafting such fine instruments and a fine case for me.

Happy Holidays to everyone,

2

Sorry, everyone on this list has been converted to flute monogamy, and we’re already betrothed. :laughing:

Kidding. There’s been lots of interest in sources of good bamboo flutes, and this will be useful information for those of us given to clandestine affairs of the heart.

3

He has been selling new bamboo flutes more or less monthly, for a while now, on ebay. So he hasn’t stopped making them entirely.



Loren

4

I noticed the same but I wouldn’t arrive at that conclusion. He’s selling them piecemeal and commanding high bids on the notion of low availability. How many he’s actually got left is a mystery. Someone should just ask.

5

If you are referring to my comment, I didn’t draw a conclusion.



Loren

6

There was a fairly recent thread about the Windwood bamboo flutes.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=17381

7

I’ve been corresponding with the maker, who has sent
me this price list. The fellow is very helpful.
Never played one of his flutes, however my feeling, FWIW,
is that a good bamboo flute ain’t rocket science.

There is a strongly favorable review of an Eb
one of these jobbies, posted on another thread.

Key Price Approximate length (in inches)

D (piccolo) $45.00 11.5
C (piccolo) $45.00 12.5
Bb $45.00 13.5
A $55.00 15
G $55.00 16.5
F $55.00 18.5
Eb $65.00 21
D (Irish or Concert) $65.00 23
C $65.00 25

Oh, yeah, shipping is five bucks, I think.

8

Is this a choice?

Price-wise, they’re about like Erik’s, I guess. FWIW, I’ve liked the few of E’s I’ve seen.

9

Good question. I don’t know the answer.
It’s hard to believe there are two flutes, though.

10

Thanks to fabflutes to start this topic.

I’ve bought one of William’s Eb. That’s the one sent to Spain that Billy mentioned some days ago. This post isn’t intended as a complete or technical review since I’m not prof. musician or luthier. It’s just my general feelings about it and some pictures and clips.

http://www.supload.com/listen?s=Syl6B30uRH9

Well I didn’t expect that a bamboo flute were so loud. I’m not really concerned about volume (especially in a Eb meant to be played at home or miked). Said that, I must say that the bell note has great power.

http://www.supload.com/listen?s=StiL4ZH6Tfc

I won’t say which colour, taste or car maker comparison the tone has, I’m certainly in the “it’s the player” camp (not the flute). But this flute is much more responsive and brighter than I thought, exceeds my expectations and will perform much better in more experienced players than me.

http://www.supload.com/listen?s=Sq-58cGoXgV

What striked me more is the excellent tuning. William is a musician, it’s easy to talk to him about preferences and what you look for in a flute. I just told him, “tuning and response”. I got the two of them. The octaves are well balanced both in tuning and volume. I found this flute highly expressive, you can take advantage of variety of volume and smoothness of bamboo to convey an extra to your playing. It’s not a breathy cane flute at all.

http://www.supload.com/listen?s=Srvd5y0M3m1

And some pics:

Aesthetically, the Miller is not terribly appealling. It’s very “natural” finished, far from the Olwells or Rhiannons I saw. William has different finish options and may torched or lacquer it if desired. Nothing wrong in looking bamboo though.

I asked William a slightly 2 mm. off-set (inwards) embouchure hole.

Embouchure hole is not small at all. This flute needs air and focused stream to get a clear tone. Nearly as much as my D Murray I’d say. I’ have to work a bit on that to get used to this new embouchure since I perceive lack of consistency in my tone.

All the holes are burnt. In some of them I perceived some manual work to fine tuning. The whole thing has a lovely scent.

My general impression is that this is a good flute to start with or to explore new tunings for a fair price. Not wood but tt’s got tuning, volume, bright and response. Hope you find these words helpful. If not talk directly to the maker. I found William highly communicative, friendly and professional.

Don’t be too harsh with the playing. No effects at all (well I deleted a cough :angry: ), crappy soundcard in a laptop, cheap micro attached, no sound enhacement, and worst of all: my playing! :laughing:

Hope you enjoy it

11

Great information! And don’t apologize for your playing, it’s great. It’s really nice to know there are high-quality bamboo flutes available out there at reasonable prices. Thanks for taking the time to share this! :slight_smile:

12

Excellent review, Sylvester! I was amazed at the (large) size of the embouchure holes when I got mine a few years ago. These flutes certainly do behave differently than Olwell bamboos. These are intense. They require a lot and they generally give a lot back. I received classic F and A flutes from him. While there is variability, as they are handmade and no two pieces of bamboo are the same, his flutes are definitely unique and can be very rewarding, as is your Eb.

A little interesting tidbit: the embouchure holes on the fifes are as large as or larger than those on the low flutes.

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Aaron’s review of the Eb says it performs as well as the Olwell.
I haven’t yet got my fins on one of these–however my bet
is that they are very good, given all the favorable reviews.
It isn’t terribly hard to make a good bamboo flute, IMO,
if you know what you’re up to. A reasonable amount of
expertise and labour plus the right material is likely
to produce something fine.

As to the visual aesthetics,
well, these cost a good deal less than Olwell’s cost
when they didn’t go for hundreds of bucks–if you can
find one at all.

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@ Sylvester - thanks for sharing and for the sound clips. Sounds very good!

It’s a rather big stretch from the E to D hole, isn’t it?

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That makes sense Jessie; William told me literally that some of his piccolos, blow a whistle out of the water. Just in case you like that way.

Bayswater, the stretch is ok. Bear in mind that the flute is shorter than a D. I didn’t have any problem. Don’t have a piper’s grip

16

Very interesting. Thanks for the information on the flutes!

-Casey

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Hi all,
Billy is very busy dealing with Christmas stuff right now but asked me to say a quick hello to folks on this thread to thank everyone for the nice comments. It makes us so happy when his flutes find a good home, and we are always eager to know what the customer thinks of his work. So thank you. And Merry Christmas! -Suzy Nees

18

Sorry I haven’t had a chance to respond to the generous comments. It’s been a week of visiting family scattered here and yon over the holidays. I just posted a photostream/slideshow (via flickr) of the custom flute set Mike originally posted on (which includes some odd keys I usually don’t make, including Ab, F#, and B natural, and a custom case (with extra pouches for whistles!) … here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yillb/sets/72157594446979266/show/ (special thanks to my digital imaging consultant and all around cool photographer, Suzy Nees)

Just for honesty’s sake, I must mention that in the photos, I included a high and low “D” (sandwiching the rest at both ends) which was not in the original flute order. Mike’s set was an 8 flute set high to low C (piccolo), B natural, Bb, Ab, G, F#, F, and Eb.

I wanted to post audio samples on my web site as well but time constraints made this impractical. Thanks Sylvester for the sweet audio sample … nice. The photos he posted are of a “natural” finished flute, (after making a batch of 3 Ebs, 2 of which did have the darker finish, I really liked the natural one so sent it to him as he had first dibs). Folks that are used to the classic wooden flute look do often lean toward the darker finish and while I can accommodate that, (Mike’s set is mostly all dark finish, which takes a little more time) I usually go for playability over looks.

To crookedtune, I’ve met Erik and his flutes and he’s a great guy. Just to note without commenting on “better” or “worse” his flutes are “reversed” meaning the natural conical bore of the bamboo is smaller at the mouth hole, and larger at the end.

I’ll be returning e-mails shortly …if you tried to contact me, sorry for the delay (this modern life of cell phones and instant messaging certainly has it’s pros and cons).

Thanks and all the best, Billy