I guess I just couldn’t resist a mystery. I really didn’t think I’d get it, but I did. Now I have to sus out what it is. It could be here this week yet.
"Beautiful Grenadilla Wood Flute. No name or markings but really good quality. 3 sections, 27 1/2 inch long assembled. Silver end caps and ferules Six open holes and nine keys. All in good working condition. Has been in storage over 25 years and will need new pads. No cracks. Beautiful tone. "
How the seller knows it has a beautiful tone but does not know the key beats me. I’m hoping it’s D, but it’s sorta long.
More photos when it arrives of course. If anyone has any ideas I’d love to hear them. Sounding length measures 24 inches exactly, 27 inches overall.
My guess, it is a nice German flute, 1880’s made of Madagascar Ebony. Might be a good player, or not. You will soon find out, good luck! I like the case.
Agree with Jon - nicely made German. At 27" it is, however, almost certainly at a lower pitch than A=440 - whether it will just sneak in 440 with the slide fully closed, who knows? You’ll have to check it out on receipt. FWIW, though, when I’ve bought a couple of similarly proportioned flutes, even if you can get a low D at 440 out of them, the L hand notes are then out of tune as the scale length is too long. I saw this one on eBay and wouldn’t have bid for precisely that reason. I’ve already got about 4 or 5 French and German flutes in stock (not fixed up) with precisely that “problem” in terms of modern usability, as well as HP English band flutes! It does look, for what that is worth like a nice quality example that may well be a decent player by its own lights. A rough guideline for C foot flutes is that you need an overall length about 26" and a sounding length in the region of 23" if it is to stand much chance of playing c440.
Thanks for the expertise guys. It will be interesting to see and play with. It looked to be in good shape, so I thought it a worthwhile chance. It listed a 7 day right of return, so why not? It also claimed to be “Grenadilla Wood” which I understand is another name for blackwood no? If it turns out to be ebony there’s another reason it might go back. Or, it could be a nice flute to play and I’ll enjoy playing it here in the living room with tile floors and 13 foot ceilings.
Which brings up a point about playing different flutes. Is it just me, or do others feel playing different flutes sharpens one’s perception of their embouchure and thus the ability to lip the flutes around?
Here’s a link to about 50 photos I took of the flute and case. It has been cracked and repaired, the corks need replaced but the pads pass the suck test. The lowest key (whatever you’d call it) is sticky, I think the spring is OK and just the piviot is gummy.
"Beautiful Grenadilla Wood Flute. No name or markings but really good quality. 3 sections, 27 1/2 inch long assembled. Silver end caps and ferules Six open holes and nine keys. All in good working condition. Has been in storage over 25 years and will need new pads. No cracks. Beautiful tone. "
See how accurate you think they were.
If anyone recognizes any aspects of the flute or the case, or thinks they have played this flute let me know. The seller didn’t have any information about the flute other than the quote above.
Deffinatly not Blackwood, looks like Madagascar ebony to me. It doesn’t look like the original case. Like you said, the foot is to short for the case.
It will be interesting how it plays.
Good luck!
Jon
I’ve not been a floutist for long, but I’ve made some flutes I liked and some I didn’t. This one seems to be somewhat critical of angle of attack of the embouchure, getting the low notes out especially. From up a couple notes thru the first part of the 3rd register it plays pretty easily, if I hold it still - which is hard for me at the moment since I’ve got to adopt a new grip due to the keys. The response is pretty good. I can wiggle my fingers as fast as I want and the tone keeps up nicely.
It seems happy playing a half-step flat from our key of D, A=440. Perhaps I’ll find other places it likes playing with the stopper and tuning slide.
Sounds like you could still have a leak somewhere. Try pluging the keys seats, with poster puddy, and see if it plays better. Grease the slide and made sure the cork is not leaking. Any cracks, that have missed your careful eye?
Jon was right of course, I worked over the keys and joints a bit and it’s a nice player now. Thanks Jon.
Quite nice actually. When I set off playing something now my session mates try to join in but wrinkle up their noses and ask “What key are you playing that in?” Why D of course, but A=420 or so.
I’m quite prone to tinker with things, and am developing an urge to enlarge the tone holes so it will play A=440. I’m aware that doing so will change the relationship between the bore and the hole sizes but 20 cents doesn’t seem like a huge distance to go. I’ve adjusted individual notes on other things that much. I don’t mind if I can’t use the bell note, there are a couple keys below D4 for taking up the slack.
But I also know that sometimes there are relationships at work that are not apparent until you break them and “Wonder why that happened like that?” causes an “Ah Ha!” Anyone have reasons to not go messing around with this flute?
