BUYING A USED WOODEN FLUTE
The sound of a wooden flute is beautiful. It offers a mellow, warm and vibrant sound and is suited to a variety of different music styles. The wooden flute itself has been around for hundreds of years and the modern wooden flute is still produced by makers such as Yamaha, Sankyo, Powell and Abell. Buying a used wooden flute though needs careful consideration.
Traditional flutes are more basic and quite often without any keys or lip plate. These are therefore open holed flutes and are used for folk and early music/Baroque music.
Let’s look at some frequently asked questions relating to buying and caring for wooden flutes.
Buying a used wooden flute:
When you buy any instrument it is important to look for a reputable source. There are many different sites to purchase flutes from, including Ebay, Gumtree, Musical Chairs and similar.
Many instruments on these sites are sold by private sellers and so there are no guarantees as to the condition or history. It may be that you will need to service the flute after purchasing and wooden flutes can be more expensive to service.
The preferred option for most purchasers is to purchase from a reputable music shop, such as London Flutes, Just Flutes, or All Flutes Plus. These dealers have experience and offer used flutes that have been checked and adjusted, ready for sale. Here are some current wooden flutes for sale with London Flutes – Wooden Flutes for sale.
Cracks and warping
Wooden flutes are more prone to issues with the wood itself. Modern flutes however are made often from seasoned African Blackwood (aka Grenadilla). The wood is seasoned to ensure that it is very hard and therefore more resistant to temperature changes that might cause cracks. Modern flutes rarely crack because of this reason.
Vintage wood flutes were not made from such hardened, seasoned wood as the modern day wooden flute. Because of this, temperature chages in heat and moisture affected them much more.
Headjoints especially suffered if they had a metal tenon (connecting joint) which ran inside the head. With larger temperature changes, the metal can expand and contract, causing cracks in the head. For this reason it is harder to find older wooden flutes without such damage.
Pitch
When you are purchasing any flute, it is important to check that it matches the current ‘Concert Pitch’, otherwise you may find that you are out of tune with your fellow band members. The standard Concert Pitch is 440hz but for flutes, 442hz is the norm and will a slight pull out of the head can tune to other instruments at 440hz.
In some countries in Europe there may be a slightly higher pitch but generally these are universally accepted as the norm.
Traditional flutes or vintage flutes may well have a higher or lower pitch. Famous flute makes such as Louis Lot often had a lower pitch of 435hz or 438hz. Because of this, players have gone to flute makers to ask them to change the position of the tone holes. This is called ‘tuning’ and whilst it made the instrument more relevant, it often affected the value.
Caring for a wooden flute
There are a few things to be aware of when owning and caring for a wooden flute.
- Avoid large temperature changes. This is especially true of older/vintage wood flutes.
- Keep the tenons (connecting joints) clean and greased. Tenons are mainly metal on wood flutes but with a cork binding. Some of the older ones just have a cord or string binding instead of cork.
- Be careful of oils and polish. I would advise not introducing oils/beeswax/polish or similar if your flute has metal keys/mechanism. Generally this can be added when the flute goes for a service. Your repairer can strip the mechanism and then clean and oil the wood. On a traditional flute without keys however, you can use a wood preserving oil or beeswax as it will not be affecting pads if they’re aren’t any.
- Irish flutes. There are useful care and maintenance tips that will also work for traditional non-keyed flutes. Here is one such blog from Mcneela Music
IN SUMMARY
Wooden flutes are a beautiful flute to own and have their own character of sound. Knowing what to look for and how to maintain them is essential but easy if you follow the above steps. Here are some wooden flutes for sale that are in top playing condition – Wooden Flutes for sale.