Originally posted by Jacquot Nice photo and flute. I'd like to know more about the flute. 106 years for wood is good, European and Boehm keying, right?
It is a thinned cocuswood flute made by Rudall Carte - With a inline radcliffe mechanism* with a few unusual modifications: the body is a single piece, it also has a cleverly hidden split E mechanism and B-foot**. Fortunately it came with a flat pitch (A=435) head joint along with the standard sharp pitch (A=455) remarkably, it plays very well at A=440. In certain situations it has a better sound than the platinum and gold flutes I typically play on.
Originally posted by Jacquot Lucky guy. 1959 Haynes, here.
James Galway used to play haynes flutes, my teacher swears by them. Personally, I prefer to play Altus, Muramatsu and Pearl flutes - American flutes just don't feel right to me.
* I have been looking out for a 1867 system flute - many people said they were superior to boehm flutes, but due to their mechanical complexity they were temperamental and difficult to keep in regulation. However, I'm sure with modern metallurgy and construction techniques it would be possible to create a flute with that system that doesn't have the pitfalls of its predecessors. Niobium is a good candidate, corrosion resistant and biologically inert. Niobium is a hard metal compared to silver and gold alloys which are rather soft and deform too easily. Platinum is harder than either silver or gold, it is also
horrendously expensive.
**nearly 90 years before these mechanical additions became standard on modern instuments.
Last edited by Digitalis; 03-12-2014 at 03:53 AM.