M&E Polymer Flutes?

Whistle
1

Anyone have any experience with these that they can share? Or experience with respect to the tonal qualities of flutes of that material as compared to wood or metal? Is there anything that makes, for example, the embouchure easier (or is that a contradiction in terms) on this flute than others? Thanks for any input.

Philo

2

this guy had an M & E D flute with 2 keys in a session and he let me play it. to answer your questions:

  1. very nice flute for the price
  2. tone not very different from wooden flutes
  3. embrochure in general not easier (or harder, for that matter) than wooden irish flutes i have tried. well, maybe just a touch easier? M & E do give the option of a notch on the trailing edge of the embrochure which makes the low D (or lowest note of whatever key you get) easier to hit. the instrument i tried had it, and i liked it. as you may know, the lowest notes of a side blown flute of any kind can be difficult. you sometimes compensate by blowin down more. the notch sort of does the same thing for you.

i am sure they explain it better on their web site. i never know URLs, but if you search "M & E Flutes you will get right to it.

have fun

meir

3

I have both M&E and Seery polymer flutes.

Both are excellent.

The M&E is a little easier to play, and can be “thrashed” harder; the Seery has that dry, loud Pratten honk.

Best wishes,

–James
http://www.flutesite.com

4

Phil,

Archives man, the archives. Try M&E, M & E, Polymer and maybe Inexpensive Flute searches. There’s a good bit of feedback out there.

IMO, Skip the split front embouchure if you go for the M&E, aside from the fact that it looks really horrible, you ought to learn to get a solid Low D without the crutch, otherwise you’re bottom end may suffer when you move up to a better flute without the cutaway.

Also, the latest reports are that the M&E Rudall, is the one to go with, as opposed to the standar M&E. I owned the standard with the split front, and I thought it was good for the money, although not up to the quality and sound of the top wooden flutes.

Also consider the Dixon Polymer 3 pc cone bore if you’re looking to go cheap and durable. Olwell Cane, is the best bang for the buck.

Loren

5

Thanks guys. Regards, Philo

6

On 2002-09-01 13:44, Loren wrote:
…I thought it was good for the money, although not up to the quality and sound of the top wooden flutes.

Nor up to the price of top wooden flutes, nor the splitting, nor the cracking or swelling. :wink:

FWIW…I have always been unable to get any more than a single, very weak, note out of any flute I have ever tried to blow - including top wooden ones made in Ireland. Until I blew the M&E ‘Ruddall & Rose’ model, without the split mouthpiece. I genuinely got a full scale on the first try. I’ve now got one myself (“I liked it so much, I bought the flute”), and have started to practice coming down the scale, too!

Steve

[ This Message was edited by: StevePower on 2002-09-01 18:24 ]