Third flute lucky?

[Brother Swampicus]

Years ago, I bought a tony dixon 'plastic' flute for around £40 and played that for a while, Then I thought I'd treat myself to a nice wooden flute, and bought a Glenluce keyless for ~£185. Having played it for about a year, I have decided that it's no better than my first one. In fact in some ways, I am compelled to say that the cheaper of the two is better. In particular, I find that the Glenluce is quite breathy (or perhaps its just my poor playing...) What kind of reputation does Glenluce have?

So: recommendations? I play at a session, so a very quiet flute would not be good. I tried a de Keyser - which sounded nice, and seemed loud enough...

[Aanvil]

How much can you spend?

Seriously.

[jim stone]

Depends on what you can pay. If you just scroll down this (and other pages), you will find
discussions of a number of good flutes that would probably fill your needs.
How much are you willing to pay?

[AbraXas]

What budget are we talking about here? And do you want to add keywork to the flute?
I play a Lehart now, and I can warmly recommend it. I have one in D with 5 keys (all except for the long F).

They cost €630 keyless (That is for the key of D and Eb)
-add €95 per key you want to have.

Gilles Lehart is a great guy. Very helpful and reliable.
I can also recommend the maker of my first flute, Dave Copley. It depends on exactly what you are looking for.

[Brother Swampicus]

For the moment I am content to earn my spurs on a keyless flute. I think my absolute max is £500, which wolfram aplha tells me is US$836 and 558 euros.

My main disappointment with the Glenluce is 'breathiness' which I know for sure isn't a problem with some other flutes I have tried. For session playing, a nice rich sound would be good.

[jim stone]

Martin doyle, Dave Copley, Casey Burns....to name a few. M Doyle is on your side of the Big Puddle.

[BigDavy]

These are the European flutemakers at or near your price point whose websites I can find.
M&E flutes
Martin Doyle flutes
Lehart flutes
Phil Bleazey flutes
John Rutzen flutes
O'Brien flutes
Lejeune Flutes
Vincent de Mauro flutes

Desi Seery and Sam Murray don't have operational websites that I can find.

David

[Aanvil]

What are used Hammy's going for these days?

[tin tin]

Granted, I haven't played a number of the flutes BigDavy lists, but the standout (for me) is Martin Doyle. If you can stretch your budget a bit, his Celtic-style blackwood with one ferule or his basic blackwood traditional style are 625 Euro. (The only difference between the two is cosmetic.)
Lehart would be another good European option.
And, as has been mentioned before, Dave Copley is a good US-based maker, and his all-wood flutes fall well within your budget. http://www.copleyflutes.com
And in all three cases, you won't have to wait terribly long for a good flute.

[jim stone]

Never heard of these before.
Anybody played one?

Vincent de Mauro flutes

[radcliff]

Anybody played one?
Vincent de Mauro flutes

I've tried about 3 of his derlin model and they are defenitly good flutes
the flutes he made in the last 3 years are far better than the older ones.

If I had to buy a flute right now, I will surley consider a Forbes http://www.forbesflutes.com/ ( 280 EUR including shipping!)

if I can spend simply more money so I will start try differet futes before to buy a new one.
Hammy - Olwell - Grinter are still my favourites....

[kkrell]

What are used Hammy's going for these days?

Keyless, around $900 - $1000, 6-key make offer.

[Axeman]

I started in the same way, with a plastic Dixon. I then moved on to a M&E polymer that I've been playing for three years now and it's a great instrument. Not the loudest flute in the world but it sounds and plays great. I don't know how the M&E wooden ones are but judging by the one I have I'd say that mr Cronolly probably makes a terrific wooden flute aswell. (Might be added that the polymer ones he makes comes at a very reasonable price).
/Mattias

[iwilson]

Sounds like a familiar story ... ! I also started on a plastic Dixon, then moved to an M&E polymer. I only had the M&E for 4 months before I was lucky enough to get a pre-owned Olwell (keyless, Nicholson design), which is excellent (though I've just been stung for the import duty from the states )

Definitely 3rd flute luck for me ....

Ian

[BigDavy]

Hi iwilson

The customs duty bit was why I restricted the list to European makers, at the price point Brother Swampicus was considering, the mark up for VAT, import duty and the Post Office charges, would be in the region of 22% on top of the cost of the flute plus delivery charges plus insurance.

David