Traveling Flutes (M&E, Seery, Healy?)

davemoffsite · Post by **davemoffsite** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 9:38 am

Hey - I just remembered that Hammy sells a student/practice flute for about 70 Euro -- has anybody played one of those - that might be just the ticket - indestructable, perhaps a little quieter, cheap enough to allow a waitlist for a nice blackwood

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 9:42 am

Uh, no, not what you're looking for.

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 10:02 am

There is one of Hammie's practice flutes on eBay right now, and the price is good ($75 buy it now I think with free shipping in the US). Search for "irish flute" and it will come up. I've never played one before, but cylindrical bore flutes just never sound the same to me as a conical bore. Also, the one piece construction would seem like a travel nightmare to me.

Another option if you prefer wood is one of M&E's wooden flutes. If I recall correctly, his blackwood is about $400 or so or even Casey Burn's starter flute would be great for travel since it's only wood with no slide and thus less prone to cracking.

Eric

Steven · Post by **Steven** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 10:27 am

glauber wrote:
BillG wrote:Suggested place for carrying case for Blackwood flutes (or any other):

http://www.holstersupply.com/gunguardpage3.htm
What does airport security do when they see you board a plane with a rifle case?

Does this work well for keyed flutes too?

g

Well, the pistol cases at the bottom of the page would probably be better for a flute. And I've taken mine on the plane (carry-on) with no problems at all from security. Once they even searched my bag, but didn't give it a second look (apparently my wife had forgotten about the 2-inch blunt embroidery scissors in her cross-stitch bag, which is what they were looking for). The case is small enough to fit into a fairly small duffel bag that I use for carry-on, it protects the flute very well, and you can even put some accessories like a cleaning stick (and maybe a whistle or two) between the foam and the outer casing.

Steven

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 12:24 pm

This is one of the reasons I'm afraid to fly. Best

Leonard · Post by **Leonard** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 1:33 pm

Question: how a Healy flute could make good travelling flute more than another? Does he make poly flutes?

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 1:57 pm

He makes wooden flutes, but very strong ones ("strong enough to kill a man", as said a post that caused all sorts of trouble in the Woodenflute list

). Specifically, he uses metal tenons, so eliminating one of the things that could crack (the tenons). Other than that, as i said, wooden flutes travel well anyway.

Leonard · Post by **Leonard** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 2:23 pm

I understand! Thanks Glauber! By the way why flutes with such a tuning slide are this rare? It looks good!

Anyway, I really like the look of Healy Flutes. I like there modern style.

Anybody can say anything on how they sound?

Good dog Glauber! (sorry ... couldn't resist!)

Thanks!

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 4:00 pm

Woof!

I tried a Healy flute only once; it belonged to someone in the Boxwood organization. I thought it was solid, heavy and loud. Maybe a little particular with the intonation, but nothing worth calling the cops about. I'd love to have one.

The metal tenons work very nicely; they have the same feel of a modern ("silver") flute and don't require maintenance.

g

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 4:07 pm

Skip Healy prides himself on making instruments quickly. He has no waiting list because he runs his workshop as a factory, with each step done by someone using a highly specialized jig within a machine. Lovers of his flutes like their power. His flutes do not, however, have the same feel or finish as more typical, more handmade, simple system flutes.

mrosenlof · Post by **mrosenlof** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 9:11 am

I think we've drifted a bit from flute types to case types. Returning to the former...

I've traveled quite a bit with a Casey Burns mopane flute. It's the very basic model with no metal hardware at all. It's survived 3 Colorado winters now and trips to Germany and Japan as well as a few domestic trips. No problems at all. I oil the flute occasionally, but otherwise don't take special care of it.

I would be more hesitant to treat it this way if it had a metal lined head or something like that...

davemoffsite · Post by **davemoffsite** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 2:44 pm

Thanks to all of you for your input, but the the decision got made for me yesterday....part of my job that I forgot about was that I sometimes am so rushed that everything is left out in the car while I meet with customers. In this case, 3 hours, middle of the day in Los Angeles, and the sun was up in force. Enough that some of the toys my son left in the car got 'soft'.

M&E wins. I can't do that with wood. Of course I will have to find a good waitlist to get on in the meantime, so I have a traveling flute and an at home instrument

. Hmm, this is sounding better all the time.

By the way, I'd sent Michael an email a couple days ago and no response. Has he been out? There was another thread where someone couldn't get ahold of him also.

Thanks again!
Dave

jlfinkels · Post by **jlfinkels** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 2:56 pm

I was going to email him as well and order one. Let us know if you reach him via email, otherwise I'll just give him a call.

Chiff and Fipple Forums

Traveling Flutes (M&E, Seery, Healy?)

Hammy Practice flute

Aaaarrrrggghhhh - my decision got made for me.