Geoffrey Ellis.
Ellis Essential Flute Demo/Review
Over the past few years I have been a "test pilot" for Geoffrey on these and other flutes, so I have played a lot of them
(dozens!). I have been meaning to post a review of them, but Blayne has beaten me to the punch,
which is a good thing because it saves me a lot of work, plus Blayne is a better player than I am and has a nicer
recording setup. I think Blayne's review covers much of what I was going to say, so I'll just add a few additional
comments below and let Blayne's demo say the rest.
Just for background, these flutes are unusual in that they have a cylindrical body bore, but the head is reamed with
a parabolic (Boehm) taper to allow the tuning and octave balance to be spot on.
The embouchure cut and tone hole layout feel familiar for those of us used to playing conical bore flutes, but I think the
back pressure is just slightly different to play due to the cylindrical body bore. So it takes a small adjustment to get the
best out of them, but overall, I think they offer a pretty easy adaptation for an ITM player. I think they would make sense
for someone wanting a relatively inexpensive, but great sounding, flute in a different key, for example. With their middle
ground characteristics, they would probably also work well for someone transitioning from a Boehm flute background.
They come in a variety of different woods, including some woods that would not traditionally be considered possible
for flute making. Geoffrey has experimented with a range of techniques, including vacuum resin infusion, to produce
incredibly resonant flutes from some very unlikely woods. For an example of this, pay attention to the D flute in Blayne's video.
That one is made from douglas fir, for goodness sake.
To my ear at least, it certainly doesn't sound like a douglas firflute, but then that is the effect of the preprocessing and bore treatment etc. The great benefit of this approach is that it opens
up some lovely new visual aesthetic options while allowing for a very low maintenance, lightweight, highly resonant, wooden flute.
In terms of playability these flutes are a little different to play than a conical bore flute, but are an easy
adaptation from conical bore flutes. I would say that in playing characteristics they are most similar to the Olwell bamboo
flutes I have, but with a bit more volume and resonance (due to the highly finished bore) and more easily reproducible
tuning (due to the precision reamed bore profile). In Blayne's video he also briefly play's Geoffrey's conical bore Pratten flute,
so you can judge the difference in sound for yourself. The difference is subtle, but I think you can hear it as well as feel
it as a player.
Anyhow, I think these are very much worth considering. The flutes in the demo are not tunable, but I believe Geoffrey may be
working on tunable versions of some of them ... or at least open to persuasion if there is sufficient interest.
Oh, and here is the link to the video Blayne made where he plays the Essential Flute in C on the backing track:
Short video about Geoffrey Ellis
