I have an old Schwedler flute for sale. It´s the third of this type I´ve worked on, all were great but in many ways this the best of the three.
It was made in Germany in early to mid 20th century, marked “FRITZSCHULLER/MARK/NEUKIRCHEN”, serial “7154”. This reads "Fritz Schüller, Markneukirchen", a known maker of wind instruments (1883-1977).
This flute is in low pitch of about A=432hz. It can go to 435 or 430hz, but 440hz is a bit out of reach. Ideal for Romantic Classical music, solo, and of course in an Irish session string instruments can tune accordingly, it will sound great.
It has a really really great strong tone and response! I don´t know if some of the qualities are related to the fact that it has a lower pitch, but I was really impressed when I first played it (and I still am). It sounds full, rich, smooth and powerful at the same time, as well as being easy to play. The metal headjoint gives extra resonance but the tone itself is very warm and woody and not metallic at all (maybe also because of the lower pitch?). Very balanced between the octaves, with particularly good low notes and banging low D.
It’s a Schwedler 1895 model (http://www.oldflutes.com/articles/schwedler.htm), with 12 nickel silver keys plus the so called “brille” on the top two tone holes, whose function is to bring in tune the high C# without flattening the cross fingered C . This “brille” works automatically when you play, no change of fingering from the normal simple system is required, and also it´s not so noticeable when you play, it’s very easy to get used to it.
The keys are the 8 standard ones plus a right-hand touch for Bb, D and E trill (I think), and the low B on the footjoint.
The wooden body is made of good quality cocuswood. The metal headjoint has an ebonite lip plate with what today is called “wing embouchure”, that was introduced in 1904 by Otto Mönnig (he called it “reform embouchure”), it became quite popular with Boehm flutes at the time. The blow hole has a square shape, that I normally don´t like much but this time I was surprised by how well it works.
Pads and cork are in good original shape and seal well. The keys work great. No cracks. There is a slight dent on the top of the headjoint (see picture), it´s on the area of the cork stopper so it has no effect whatsoever on the tone.
It comes with its original case, which is in good conditions. The closing mechanism doesn´t snap very well but it works and keeps the flute safe. The lock is missing its key.
Because the flute is low pitch, the asking price is only 450 euros shipping included.
Here is a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsPQUIHStqY
And pictures:
