Chiff and Fipple Forums

I’m selling a one of a kind 9-key flute with a Boehm foot in olivewood, made by John Gallagher. It is his small-holed model, patterned after Chris Norman’s famous flute (Rudall & Rose #742). It has an additional Bb right hand lever and also features “upgraded” rings, with side lobes instead of the standard D shape. It plays beautifully and easily down to low C, with a particularly strong and powerful low D. Despite its small holes, it’s a powerful flute, which I think is due to a large extent to John’s embouchure cut. (I’ve verified this by fitting this headjoint to a different flute, and it made it quite a bit more powerful.) Intonation is excellent.

This flute was made in 2021 and is in excellent, almost new condition. (I’m the first owner.) It comes with a Northwind case. This flute cost me US$5780 ($5400 for the keyed flute with Boehm foot + $200 for the extra Bb key + $180 for the Northwind case) when I ordered it from John in early 2020, and I had to wait about 18 months to get it.

I’m asking US$4950 + shipping. Wise preferred, but PayPal possible if the buyer pays fees. I’m happy to answer questions from seriously interested parties

Pictures are available here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAnj3n

Oh, that's beautiful!

Good price, too.

I had a Gallagher large-holed Rudall, and it had a very large voice. I don't think I quite trained myself up to full capability on that flute, and I didn't successfully manage the intonation of the middle C/C# notes on it. I've found myself preferring the medium-large Rudalls.

Your Gallagher appears to be what I call medium-small, I'm guessing hole #4 at 7.5mm? See the Olwell taxonomy:
https://www.olwellflutes.com/post/a-tax ... den-flutes

From "rudalls I have known" I use:
7.5mm Medium-small (My Rudall-being-repaired)
8.0mm Medium-large (My favorite Rudall)
9.0mm Large holed & Nicholson Flute. (My Largest Rudall)

Most American 8-key flutes are in the 7.5-8.0mm range for hole #4.

My "large-holed" Gallagher had hole #4 at 8.9mm, which ironically is slightly smaller than my largest Rudall, however the Gallagher had much larger holes #2 and #5 (for venting of B and F#, I guess), and it definitely played with more power.

Hi tstermitz,

I just checked and hole #4 is 6.9mm on this flute. So a bit smaller than your "Medium-small".

In the end I decided to send this flute to the Irish Flute Store.