As part of my ongoing quest to get the most information possible in the next 4 or 5 months before going visiting places, I was wondering if anyone has played both the 2 piece and 3 piece from Skip Healy and if thye could tell me what the difference is as far as playability and sound. It’s a $250 price difference betweeen the 2pc and 3 pc in blackwood witht he silver tenon. I’m just wondering how they stack up against each other. There’s really not a lot of posts about the Healy flutes so I’d really like to hear from people that have them.
Thanks
I have played a bunch of Healy 3-piece flutes of several different woods. They were all acceptable, though the last finger hole on any Healy is a bit of a stretch, as compared with all other simple system flutes. I ordered a 2-piece in Madagascar Rosewood. It played ok, but the holes were SERIOUSLY unfinished. They were not sanded AT ALL, I mean there were splinters around every hole. I returned the flute for a refund.
For people who really can’t wait and want an acceptable flute, a Healy can be an acceptable choice, because the Healy Flute Company can turn one out very quickly.
But I agree with Loren…get yourself a Copley.
Jessie
I agree with Jessie. I think the Healy flutes are overpriced - I had to send one back to get the tone holes finished off, to get rid of a scrape on the head joint and to have the foot joint tightened. (This was on a $4,000 keyed model too!!) The flutes have a nice sound, but one of the ones I owned (a keyless) had intonation problems.
If you are in a hurry, get an M&E and use it until you can get a Copley, Hamilton or another nice keyless. The wait for a Hammy is 6 months.
Good luck!
Heather M.
On 2002-11-05 16:23, JessieK wrote:
But I agree with Loren…get yourself a Copley.
Hey now, careful there! I also said that I think Skip makes fabulous (3pc) flutes, with workmanship that’s right up there at the top of the heap, based on the one I owned.
In the end I think Skip and Dave’s flutes are apples and oranges to each other - both wonderful, in their own ways.
Have not played or seen one of Skip’s 2 pc flutes, so I can’t comment there.
Loren
[ This Message was edited by: Loren on 2002-11-05 16:44 ]
I have a Healy 3 piece thatI just picked up in early October. (At the Wind on the Bay Symposium). I love it! I couldn’t be more thrilled with the craftsmanship. Beautiful to look at and easy to play! Previously, I played a “Lark”. For me, the offset fingerig makes a great deal for difference. In fact I put in a marathon practice this weekend - 6 hours Saturday; 5 hours Sunday and NO hand pain!
While I have not tried a 2 piece - maybe someday…(Skip?)- I can say from experience that the extra $250 was well worth the investment.
Hope that helps!
Peach
Hi Everybody,
I thought I would de-lurk for a moment and pass along a comment or two about my instruments.
I wanted to build a “student model” type flute to agument my usual 3 piece Blackwood flute. I wanted to keep the price down but still have a solid instrument. I chose a wood called Bois de Rose (Madagascan Rosewood) and built the flute with a traditional cork wrapped tenon instead of the silver tenon that all my other instruments feature.
I no longer offer these instruments for precisly the reasons mentioned in “J.K.'s”
post. It was quite difficult to get the wood to finish up nicely since it is a “fir” based wood and tends to have a stringy grain pattern. The tenon would also expand and contract madly so there were problems with them being either too loose or too tight. I don’t blame "J.K.’ for sending the flute back
as the grain had indeed pulled up to an alarming degree. Her money was refunded without question.
There were also problems with Ms. Martleys flute too. This production problem has also been addressed. My former silversmith lives in Tucson Az. and this was the last flute he had worked on for me. I too was less than thrilled when I saw the flute as it went directly from him to Ms. Martley. The needed adjustments were immeadiatly addressed, again with my apologies. My new silversmith (Dave Skillen) is “in house” which is a much better system indeed.
I have been building wooden instruments for over 20 years now but there is always more to learn. There are always proceedures and techniques that can and should be improved. I have learned a great deal about my instruments
and myself as a result of these failures. I hope that the modifacations to both prove to be of value.
All the best,
Skip Healy
Healy Flute Company
Good man, Skip.
Thanks for the info.
Best,
Chris
Yes, Skip. Thank you for telling us that you are on top of stuff and that you won’t accept into production instruments that are not, for whatever reason, up to par.
Jessie
Hi, I want to jump in here…
I have one of Skip’s 3 piece flutes (bought it keyless and had it keyed later) and I had a student just receive a 2 piece. They are very diferent instruments. The 3 piece is an artist quality instrument, great sound and intonation. Also very reachable, I have small hands and Skip will offset the tone holes if you want. The 2 piece is very nice as a good entry level/student instrument/. It has nice intonation and a good sound, but not at the high artistic level of the 3 piece (but it beats a Sweetheart in spades). I have been extremely happy withs Skip’s instruments and the workmanship thereof and in addition, Skip is a pleasure to work with.
Andra Bohnet
Please forgive all the typos in the previous post, mea culpa. My fingers work lots better on the flute than on the keyboard
I feel that I need to correct some information in Skip’s post regarding my flute and the unfinished tone holes, etc. (Perhaps you’ve forgotten Skip, it was a while ago, and you sell a lot of flutes! ) The keyless flute body came to me from Skip’s shop for prior approval before being keyed. At that time, the tone holes were rough and head joint was scraped, etc. I sent it back to Skip so that these errors could be corrected. Skip fixed the problems and shipped the flute back to me. I signed off on it and then sent it to the silversmith to be keyed. So, unless the silversmith was making the keyless bodies, the error was not his, and therefore it’s not fair to assign him the blame.
I was told when I ordered the flute that because the third finger right hand was offset, it was a custom flute and therefore unreturnable. I agreed to these terms, so, returning it was not an option for me.
I’m glad to hear that any production problem areas have been worked out, and that all flutes are now returnable if there should be any problem - this was a couple of years ago.
Heather M.
Welcome, Skip!Welcome Andra! Looking forward to your contributions to this forum.
Tots
I have played both two and 3 piece Healys. The main difference to me would be if you might want to add keys later you should get the 3 piece. They both sounded great and were expertly made. I know people who hear differences between wound tenons and silver tenons (the wound tenons sound softer). I’m sure those same people would prefer not having a tenon to possibly interfere with the sound.
You really should stick with blackwood or cooktown ironwood.
I got my keyed Healy blackwood D at the West Coast Symposium last year. There were several excellent makers there and the other players were generous about sharing their flutes. I was especially impressed by Skip’s workmanship. Certainly the flute you pick is an individual choice. But the players I have been with have all really enjoyed playing my Healy and all the people I have directly talked to consider Healys a top tier flute.
–Alfy
I believe Skip’s current two-piece flutes are quite different than his older models.
Besides the possibility of adding keys later, is there any difference in tone or playability between the three and two piece? Are the embouchre holes the same?
It would seem to me that (all other things being equal) fewer joints would = better sound.
Just curious.
Maybe Skip can elaborate.
Patrick
I did some checking on Healy tone hole spacing. It turns out Skip’s D flute is a Pratten pattern and has the exact same spacing between R2 and R3 and sizes of holes as a measured Pratten from the 1800’s. My delrin Seery “Pratten” is even a bit larger. Other flute patterns, like R&Rs have smaller holes and shorter spacings, and some flute makers make special flutes for small hands. Skip’s flute is certainly not a bigger stretch than all other simple system flutes as was previously posted.
Comments were also made about Healy tone hole finishing. Skip’s tone holes are not sanded round like many makers do, but cut in a two step process with a custom tone hole cutter and then a counter sink. On blackwood this leaves a smooth surface with well defined edges. Most people comment on how sharp Skip’s tone holes feel when they first play his flutes. I have heard Healy flute veterans complain that they can’t feel the holes on flutes that were sanded round. For me, the countersinking gives a nice inner edge so I can slide on and off the hole easily, and the well defined hole edges make for a faster and more secure seal when playing at speed. As far as I know, Skip doesn’t sand his tone holes, but hopefully he’ll correct me if I have this wrong.
Alfy
On 2002-11-12 10:21, SkipHealy wrote:
Hi Everybody,I thought I would de-lurk for a moment and pass along a comment or two about my instruments.
I wanted to build a “student model” type flute to agument my usual 3 piece Blackwood flute. I wanted to keep the price down but still have a solid instrument. I chose a wood called Bois de Rose (Madagascan Rosewood) and built the flute with a traditional cork wrapped tenon instead of the silver tenon that all my other instruments feature.
I no longer offer these instruments for precisly the reasons mentioned in “J.K.'s”
post. It was quite difficult to get the wood to finish up nicely since it is a “fir” based wood and tends to have a stringy grain pattern. The tenon would also expand and contract madly so there were problems with them being either too loose or too tight. I don’t blame "J.K.’ for sending the flute back
as the grain had indeed pulled up to an alarming degree. Her money was refunded without question.There were also problems with Ms. Martleys flute too. This production problem has also been addressed. My former silversmith lives in Tucson Az. and this was the last flute he had worked on for me. I too was less than thrilled when I saw the flute as it went directly from him to Ms. Martley. The needed adjustments were immeadiatly addressed, again with my apologies. My new silversmith (Dave Skillen) is “in house” which is a much better system indeed.
I have been building wooden instruments for over 20 years now but there is always more to learn. There are always proceedures and techniques that can and should be improved. I have learned a great deal about my instruments
and myself as a result of these failures. I hope that the modifacations to both prove to be of value.All the best,
Skip Healy
Healy Flute Company
Hello,
I’ve been over in Ireland all week so I’m just getting back to checking the posts here. So if you are still lurking, maybe you can just verify a few specifics for me or maybe someone else may have these answers.
So the two piece is being made in Blackwood or Ironwood only now? You stated above that you were no longer using that particular type of rosewood.
The two piece is really not meant for sessions or pro playing but is geared more for a beginner/intermediate player to practice with?
What are the actual differences between a blackwood 3 pc and a blackwood two pc with a silver tenon other than the portability of the 3 piece? ($250 price difference) Is the 2pc significantly different from the 3pc in sound or playability?
Is the finger spacing different or the holes larger/smaller?
I’m sorry to have a lot of questions like this but I’m just not sure if it’s worth it for me to even look at the 2pc (my wallet says, check out the 2pc though) or if I should just be looking at the 3pc flutes. Do you let people come up to your shop to see the flutes and ask you questions directly? That may be the easier way to go about this As I stated at the begining of the thread, I won’t be looking to buy until the spring but I’d like to make some determinations before then. Please let me know.
Thanks
Hi everybody,
Patrick & Jim, I’m sorry for the delay in responding to your questions. Here’s a bit more information.
On the now-discontinued two piece model, the length, bore, tone hole sizes, and spacings were the same as on the three-piece flute. The embouchure hole was two-thirds the size of the fully cut embouchure. The idea behind this is that after the student developed basic embouchure control, the hole could be enlarged to accomodate more air.
The current two-piece flute is offered in blackwood, Cooktown ironwood, and Bois de Rose with a silver tenon (soon to be listed on my Web site). I feel that this is a far superior design compared to my earlier effort.
The biggest difference between a three-piece flute (headjoint, body, and footjoint) and a two-piece flute (headjoint and body) is the ability for the player to rotate the footjoint to a position they find comfortable if it is a keyed footjoint. It is indeed possible to fully key a two-piece flute. I would just need to confirm the exact rotation of the D sharp touch piece for the maximum comfort of my client.
I agree that the fewer joints (or tenons) there are in an instrument, the better.
Jim, you can certainly visit me at my shop or contact me at skip@skiphealy.com with any questions you may have.
All the best,
Skip Healy
Healy Flute Company
[ This Message was edited by: skiphealy on 2002-11-17 15:41 ]
What on earth is bois de rosethe?
[SEE FURTHER NOTE BELOW, I WAS MISREADING SKIP’S TYPO. SORRY!]
Stuart
[ This Message was edited by: sturob on 2002-11-17 17:50 ]
Aww c’mon Stuart, you know what skip meant
Loren
Skip,
Is the embouchre hole still smaller on the two-piece?
Patrick