Page 1 of 1

Quick review of Chris Wilkes keyless Rudall

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 11:37 am
by jim stone
People are asking how I'm doing with the Wilkes flute I bought
at the Irish Flute Store. It's exceptionally good. The closest thing I have to it is a Bryan Byrne Rudall,
a beautiful and expressive flute.
The Wilkes is more aggressive 'out of the box.' It has a complex sound and it's
louder--a 'crackin' flute, Blayne called it.
The bottom D is strong and lovely. Perfect intonation (IMO).
The quality of the workmanship throughout is
phenomenally good. So I'm most happy with it and I'm playing for hours
most days. Dave Copley put in a
thumb hole for me, which works very well. One of these keyed would be better still,
but Wilkes plainly cared a great deal about this flute (I suppose this is general
for his flutes). It is up there with Pat O's flutes, at the least. I'm having no trouble
at all with the embouchure, but I've been playing something like an hour a day
for 17 years. These flutemakers are all my heroes. Lucky we are to have people
of this talent and dedication, making acoustic works of art on which we
can play music. Peace through music, I say.

Re: Quick review of Chris Wilkes keyless Rudall

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 8:41 am
by MarkP
It’s not often you’d get a maker to cut a hole in another maker’s flute, let alone a Wilkes, does Chris know? :boggle:

Re: Quick review of Chris Wilkes keyless Rudall

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 9:23 am
by jim stone
No, I can't imagine he knows. I've had this done on several flutes from other (top rank) makers,
one's I had bought new from them. I called the makers in these cases and asked if
it would be alright to have another maker, near me, do the hole. They gladly
agreed and indeed preferred it. It simply wasn't seen as a difficulty or a major revision. These fellows were in the USA, my country.

The Wilkes flute, while beautiful,
was made possibly 20 years ago, I bought it used online, I've never had any communication
with Wilkes, and CITES prohibits my sending the flute to him or his returning it to me. Due to problems with my L1 finger I can't play a keyless without a thumb hole. I knew the work would be impeccable. Given my past experiences and the circumstances, it was alright.