Visiting Ireland - where can I try & buy wooden flutes?

[monoRAIL]

I'm visiting Ireland in December and January, staying in Dublin. I'd like to buy a wooden keyless flute, but I really want to try it first rather than order one blind. Can anyone recommend music shops or manufacturers that will let me try out a flute before I place an order or buy it?

I currently have a Tipple D. I haven't played a wooden flute yet but I'm keen to see if they sound or feel much different.

[2T00TS]

Hello There, You could try Arie De Keyzer, who flits between his native home in Belgium and his abode in Swords just a few miles north of Dublin. If you contact him through his website before your departure you can arrange to meet him at his workshop ( assuming he's not in Belgium ). My son and I have two of his keyless African Blackwood Pratten models and we are both delighted with them. Arie makes excellent flutes at a price that won't break the the bank, and he's a gentleman to deal with. If you are planning to move further afield you could visit Michael Cronnolley in Co. Mayo ( website M&E Flutes ) who makes great Rudall & Rose style flutes in African Blackwood and polymer ( we also have a few examples of these). Both of these chaps make affordable, serious entry level instruments and are a pleasure to deal with. There are plenty of other fine flute makers out there ( if I'm not mistaken one of the members keeps a pretty up to date contact list of flute makers on this very site) but these two come to mind immediately when thinking of quality entry level. Have a great time over there ( PRETTY MUCH GUARENTEED) and I'm sure you'll be spoiled for choice. 2TOOTS.

[Mr.Gumby]

You can either make an contact with a maker, see if they have anything on the go, and visit. Few shops will have flutes that you will want to buy (the black gloss painted broomsticks that could be found in shops during the nineties were notorious but they have been superseded by Pakistani and other mass produce of similar quality) but Custy's in Ennis and Powell's in Galway have occasionally decent flutes on offer and are worth a look if you happen to pass. You can also give Steve Chambers @ McNeill's in Miltown Malbay a bell to see if he has anything on offer.

[Steve Bliven]

And Julia Delaney who posts here sometimes has, or has access to, flutes available to try or buy (or both). Just not sure just where he hangs out though—it may be a ways from Dublin.

Best wishes.

Steve

[ancientfifer]

I'm thinking also Francois Baubet. He has a website and i believe he'll gladly arrange an appointment to meet with a prospective buyer.

[monoRAIL]

Thanks everyone for the tips - lots of planning to do now before my trip!

[psychodonald]

Also have a Arie DeKeyzer flute, a boxwood D flute. A very nice flute; however, it is keyed (6/7 keys. It has a double touch Bb, really a nice arrangement and for me makes it easier to play the Bb, so I guess it's a 6 keyed with 7 touches), not keyless. Fairly recently had contact with Mr. DeKeyzer, had a question and found him very pleasant and friendly to deal with. If I were fortunate enough to be in your position and going to Ireland for a visit, I would certainly try to look him up; my guess is that he would try to accommodate you.

[Ketil]

Try to contact Crehan Music, Dublin
http://www.crehans.ie/

They seem (according to his website) to stock Martin Doyle flutes.
Or contact Martin Doyle directly and see if he can arrange for you to try one of his great flutes.

If you take the 3,5 hour bus ride to Galway, you may find that Powells in Shop street stock Sam Murray flutes. At least they did the last time I was there (about two years ago)

Ketil

[ChrisLaughlin]

I also suggest you try Martin Doyle. I have one of his simple D flutes and it's superb. I also own two Olwells, a Grinter, and a Copley, and I'm just as happy playing the Doyle as any of the others. http://www.martindoyleflutes.com/

[jemtheflute]

Wouldn't argue with much of the above - bar the de Keyzer recommendations ( IMO/IME) - but speak as you find!

Definitely be very wary of music shop offerings - some of the ubiquitous Pakistani products have improved and are now playable flutes, but the music shops tend to sell them for upwards of €200 and they just aren't worth it, though itchy fingers and flute-lust can lead to indiscretion when trying flutes out - I know!!!!

Do check out the Flute Makers List as previously recommended - perusing it will teach you much about flutes in general and make you more aware of what to look for/what you may be looking at. I'm afraid The List is much in need of an update, but it is still pretty useful. There are quite a few very good makers in Ireland these days, though few are in comfortable reach of Dublin, I fear. Off-hand I can add to those already mentioned: Vincenzo di Mauro in Galway, Marcus Hernon in Connemara, Hammy Hamilton in Co. Cork and David O'Brien in Clare.

[dont]

I believe that Des Seery is in Bray, a little south of Dublin, pretty easy on the train.

[Julia Delaney]

Thanks for the kind recommendation. I am no longer buying and selling instruments, barring the occasional accident. I will be selling my current stock and not replacing it.
If I were looking to buy a wooden flute in Ireland I'd contact Martin Doyle (Co Clare) or Francois Baubet (Galway) directly. Anything you find in a store will likely be a cheap Pakistani flute-like object rather than a playable flute. A shop instrument would include an extra fee that the store adds to what they've paid the maker. Flutemakers seldom have a wholesale price. The best makers have a waiting list of people who know what they want and the maker has no need to offer a shop a discount from their retail price.
Doyle often has flutes available on short notice. They are consistently excellent, as are Baubet's flutes.

[Steve Bliven]

If we're getting away from Dublin, you might also contact Glenn Watson in Galway on the slight chance that he has something just sitting around. Google his web site or direct contact via watsonflutes (at) yahoo (dot) ie

Best wishes.

Steve

[Steph7]

Hey, I will be i Dublin 23th-24th-25th of December, let me know maybe we could share a bit of tunes...!

[monoRAIL]

Thanks again everyone for the tips everyone. Sorry I didn't have time to catch up Timberflute22, I was really busy over Christmas.

I bought an M & E Cronnolly flute in the end (pictures below) but I thought it would be helpful to recount some of my experiences for the benefit of anyone else holidaying in Ireland who wants to try flutes.

Firstly, I should say I was traveling with young kids and didn't want to go on long drives out to the country to visit flute-makers in person. Also I felt that an advantage of trying flutes in shops in Dublin would be the lack of pressure to buy from the owners, and this turned out to be correct - shop owners were more than happy for me to take out multiple flutes and play away at my own pace. I suspected that if I'd driven for a few hours to visit a maker and then found the flute not to be to my liking it would be much harder to simply give it back and go try another one.

Also I already had a cheap Tony Dixon 2 piece polymer flute/whistle, and a Doug Tipple which I really liked. So I was looking for something that sounded substantially different from the Tipple. I've always found it difficult to play softly in the second octave, and wasn't sure if this was due to my inexperienced embouchure or if it was the nature of the Tipple flute (a D flute in black plastic, with the lip-plate).

First store I tried was McCullough Piggots music store beside the Powerscourt town house center. They had a nice selection of flutes and whistles to try.

• First up was a McNeela rosewood 'beginner' flute which was 189 Euro.
  http://www.irishmusik.com/the-cygnet-rosewood-flute/
  Obviously at this price these are not hand-made in Ireland. I believe they're made in China and Paraic McNeela imports them and 'finishes' them himself. Finishing means he checks they're correctly in-tune and oils them thoroughly. Despite the warnings I've read about imported flutes, this thing was not junk, it was really easy to play and quite loud. It did have a strong smell though (perhaps this fades with age). I'll write more about McNeela a bit later as I called him up to have a chat.
• They also had a Tony Dixon 3 piece polymer flute. This is the high-end Dixon flute, although it's still quite cheap compared to other delrin flutes. I really didn't give this enough play-time to comment on it as I already had a Dixon flute and was looking for another brand, however if you want to try one before buying you can find them here.
• Lastly they had an Arie DeKeyzer blackwood keyless for 650 Euro. I tried this but found it very hard to play. Perhaps the embouchure hole was too different to what I'm used to but I just found that I wasn't getting a clean tone easily. This is more likely to be down to my inexperience than any issue with the flute. The flute's construction quality was excellent and it felt very nice.

Next I checked the Waltons website and saw that they had Desi Seery Delrin flutes on sale for 379 Euro. I called in the next day (to their George's Street store) and gave one a thorough try-out, playing it for around 30 minutes in a quiet corner of the shop. I noticed two main differences between this and my Tipple. The Tipple plays a louder low D, and the low octave in general is stronger on the Tipple. The Seery however had a very sweet and soft higher octave. This was exactly what I was looking for, something that sounded different to the Tipple and would allow me to play higher songs easily. It was a very nice build quality, well finished with no marks or flaws. There was a strong smell from it, but I assume that was because it was brand new. I had the money out of my pocket and was ready to buy it when the sales man said "That'll be 479 Euro please". Apparently Desi Seery had dropped these in just the day before and had bumped the price up 100 Euro! I decided not to buy it at that price and called Desi a few times to see if he'd still sell one at the old price, but I never got an answer from him.

So then I called up Pairic McNeela, after looking at his website I saw that he also sells Arie DeKeyzer flutes and a large range of wooden and polymer flutes. I told him I already had a Tipple and he basically said that none of his imported flutes (even the higher-cost ones) are significantly better than a good polymer flute like the Tipple, and that I should consider instead jumping up to the higher cost 'serious' flutes made in Ireland. I think this was very decent of him, rather than trying to make a quick sale he gave me some good advice. He's got a showroom in Dublin where you can try out all his flutes and a huge range of other trad instruments like fiddles, bodhrans and whistles so if you're looking to try instruments while in Ireland I'd recommend paying him a visit.

So next I started reading up on Michael and Evelyn Cronnolly's polymer flutes (commonly called M & E flutes). They're 260 Euro, and they offer a money-back-guarantee. Since the postage was only a couple of days from Mayo to Dublin I figured I'd give one a shot without having played it first. I'm very happy with it. To my ear, it sounds pretty similar to the Seery, meaning it has a soft, sweet second octave and a slightly quieter low octave than the Tipple. The low D is not strong, however it's very easy to overblow it and get it to buzz before it breaks into the high-D, which is really hard to do on the Tipple. It's very heavy and sturdy. The finish is not as high-quality as the Seery, there were tiny dabs of glue here and there which I scraped off, and there is some asymmetry in the tone holes and embouchure hole where they've been hand-filed, however this is only noticeable upon very close inspection. From a few feet away it looks great. The joints are bare plastic, with no threading or corks. However they fit snugly, and the tuning-slide is brass and has a smooth but tight action.

It also comes with a soft pouch, which has partitions inside to stop the flute parts from bumping into each other.




So after trying a few good flutes I have a couple of observations. Firstly, the Tipple is incredibly good value and compares very favorably with lathed flutes. Secondly, my inability to play high-notes softly has vanished with this new M & E flute - perhaps the Tipple without the lip-plate can play high-notes more easily? I recon I'll just have to buy one to find out