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All keyed flutes are supplied with a hard case
a hard case is also available for the D keyless flute price £ 150:00

If you need help with repairs to, and maintenance of your instrument please go to:-
FLUTECARE
The basis of these flutes is the Rudall Rose model which has proved extremely popular with players over the years and so was the obvious choice. They are supplied with, from one to six keys in any combination. The keys are block mounted as were the originals. At the moment I have no intention of making the extended foot with C# and D holes.
The keys are each individually hand made by me from brass for superior strength and silver plated with pure silver which gives better tarnish resistance than sterling silver. The touch plates are kept, where possible, on the centre line of the key to avoid the twisting moment of the traditional offset ones, alignment of the key with the players fingers being made by cutting the blocks in the right place to start with. Each block is lined with a solid brass channel to promote freer movement, wear resistance and, most importantly, to make the block much stronger than the old unlined ones which are liable to distort and cause jamming or excessive movement of the keys. Should the unthinkable occur and a key be damaged by, for instance, dropping the instrument, the fabricated brass key can be easily straightened with no risk of breakage and the block with its brass liner can be rebuilt to its original condition.
The secret of good tone and volume in flutes is the reduction of acoustic impedence which is increased whenever the vibrating air has to pass a sharp corner or if it has to bounce off a baffle type surface such as the pad on a key. The tone holes under the keys on my flutes are lined with a machined brass seat which flares out like a tiny bell under the pad. The pads are as small as practical in cups which curve on the underside like the pads on your fingers. This combination gives low impedance at the tone hole exit promoting good tone and volume, proof of this is in the fact that if you remove a key from the instrument the pitch and volume produced from the open hole remain unchanged. On some older flutes I have worked on the change can be as much as a quarter tone- a nightmare to the tuner who must replace the key to check the result after each adjustment, I have much less trouble in this regard. In all cases the volume produced by the keyed holes equals that of the adjacent holes.
The springs are screwed in place making replacement straightforward. Both springs and screws are stainless steel. Each spring bears on a Teflon pad sunken into the body of the instrument to reduce wear and friction.
Pads are made from "pnumatic lamb", which is not an inflatable farm animal but is the skin used on organ pallets. This material is readily available to instrument makers, who will all be familiar with the technique of bedding them into the cups with shellac.



African Blackwood, Boxwood, Mopane and Yew.

Last Updated February 2010.