I make keyed and unkeyed wooden flutes in D, both Pratten and Rudall & Rose copies. Welcome to my website.
There are some sound samples available on the
website (more to come soon). See after the table of prices for details.
After decades of being asked to make soprano D whistles , here it is!
Made from African Blackwood and sterling silver (925) with a tuning slide,
the whistle has a rich, warm sound with plenty of volume.
Interchangeable C body also available.
£185 plus shipping
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The photograph shows, from the top:- an 8 keyed flute in D with long footjoint, fully chromatic down to C an unkeyed flute in D with long footjoint an unkeyed flute in D with short footjoint a 5 keyed flute in D with short footjoint |
Flute making in
I have been making flutes
since 1978, combining the skills I have acquired as a trained engineer and as a
flute player. I make flutes in D which
are based on the designs of R. S. Pratten Perfected and Rudall & Rose
flutes. The flutes coming out of the
workshop these days have a more powerful and very rich, dark sound. I also make flutes in F, Eb, Bb,
and Alto flutes.
As regular visitors this web
site will know I have not been making many changes over the years, this is due
to the volume of orders that we have had during those years. However I have been increasingly aware that
some information should be added. We
also make Pratten copies which are based on an original Pratten flute that is
in the workshop 'collection'. This has a
really powerful sound which, because of the mouth hole, also retains the
clarity which is more associated with an R&R instrument. The tone holes on this flute are large,
including the keyed holes, giving the full sound of the original.
My favourite flute to play at the moment is the Bb which resides on top of the bookcase in the house, it is
difficult to pass this flute by without picking it up to play a tune! The instrument itself is based on a very good
8 keyed R&R flute, with the long footjoint.
I worked on this flute for a while until I managed to get the sound I
was looking for (bright, clear and easy to achieve), and in particular that it
was easy to finger. Anyone who has
played our Bb mentions that it is
much easier to finger than a low D whistle, for example. This allows the flute
to be used for jigs and reels as well as the usual slow tunes that are
associated with the playing of the Bb.
In addition to the above low flute, we are now making an Alto flute which when
fully keyed will go down to G, as low as the fiddle. Again, this instrument is
easy to blow and the stretch is easier than on the low D whistle. It has a very dark, mellow sound which is
lovely and clear.
There is a choice of wood - African Blackwood, Rosewood or Boxwood. African Blackwood is certainly the
most-preferred choice, as much for its tone as for its stability. I have been buying my Blackwood direct from
The appearance, playing
quality and reliability of a flute are of great importance to me, and
'precision' is the key element in my making of the instruments. All my flutes have a tuning slide and headcork
tuner assembly in the headjoint, and all ferrules and keys are made from
sterling silver (925). All ferrules are
hallmarked with the
Cases
Each instrument is supplied in a velvet-lined, standard case and is accompanied with instructions on how best to care for the flute.
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This is the standard flute
case. The case is padded and fitted out for our flutes and is included in the
price of the flute. Also in this range are leather bound cases, available only with keyed flutes. |
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This is a new range of deluxe flute cases, made from birdseye maple or quilted sycamore, top and bottom, with sides in cherry wood. An African Blackwood (no expense spared) edging is incorporated where the other two woods meet to make this a very exclusive case. Available only with keyed flutes.
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Here are some more photographs of my flutes. They are about 60Kb (in jpg format) so should be fast to download.
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Prices and ordering information
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Keyless flute in D, Eb, F with short footjoint |
£615 |
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Keyless flute in D (Pratten or R&R), with long footjoint |
£685 |
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Keyless flute in Bb or Alto |
£765 |
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Five-keyed flute in D, Eb, F with short footjoint |
£1210 |
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Six-keyed flute in D, Eb, F with short footjoint |
£1360 |
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Five-keyed flute in D (Pratten or R&R), with long footjoint |
£1280 |
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Six-keyed flute in D (Pratten or R&R), with long footjoint |
£1430 |
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Eight-keyed flute in D (fully chromatic down to C) |
£2135 |
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Eight-keyed flute in D, as above but with hand-engraved ferrules and end cap (hallmarked) |
£2495 |
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Eight-keyed flute in Bb (fully chromatic down to Ab) |
£2385 |
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Eight-keyed Alto flute (fully chromatic down to G) |
£2450 |
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Flute Case - Deluxe model, add |
£65 |
Prices, in Pounds Sterling, apply from April 2008. Carriage and insurance are charged extra at cost.
All orders must be confirmed by letter and accompanied by a deposit of 20%, the balance to be paid on completion and before despatch. Payment can be made by cheque, bank draft or direct bank transfer in Pounds Sterling by direct bank transfer in Euros to our European account by Paypal.
Please 'phone, write or email to check the waiting time. Occasionally I have some models in stock, available for immediate despatch.
Here you can download and listen to samples of the sounds of my flutes. The recordings were made in a room in my house with myself as the player. Each recording was done in a single take.
There are two different mp3 recordings, made using the same unkeyed flute with a different footjoint. One is using a C footjoint and the other using a D footjoint. Each sound sample is about 30 seconds long (that is about 500Kb in size) and takes around 2 minutes at full speed to download using a 56Kb modem. Your browser probably will not attempt to launch the program to play the sample until it has been completely downloaded.
The recordings were made using a small, stereo microphone linked directly into a portable minidisc recorder. They were then input to the computer directly from the minidisc recorder via the line-in of a Creative Soundblaster128 soundcard. No processing was done apart from slight changes in volume levels to try to equalise them. This was done using the Sound Forge program. The same program was used to convert the recordings into mp3 format.
There is not enough space on my website to store a lot of recordings in wav format. Each one of those requires about 5.5 Mb of space for 30 seconds of playing time and takes about 12 times as long to download as the equivalent mp3 version. In my opinion, there is not enough difference in sound quality to justify that. However I have uploaded one sample, the one using the C footjoint, so that those of you with fast connections or a lot of patience can compare the mp3 and wav versions. Note that if you are using Internet Explorer to download a wav file, it will probably launch Windows Media Player and this may try to stutter through the tune during the downloading process. It will play it properly when the downloading is complete and you can then save it for repeated listening thereafter.
Notes on Care
Sometimes, flutes have been sold from shops without the sheet entitled 'Notes on Care', and these notes are important for the care of the instrument, they are reprinted here in text format.