What would be your dream flute?

I've just been randomly drooling over flutes (again!) and wondering what they'd all be like to play.

I'd love to try a Lafin headjoint or six.... adler wings and engraved mouthplates... oh and a wooden headjoint or too.

I think my dream flute would be a John Lunn flute tailored exactly to my hands with a really really fabby headjoint - or several, so I could chop and change whenever I wanted.

How about you?

Realistically for the future (when I'm a dentist ) A Brannen brothers flute or handmade Powell, preferably in 14k Aurumite or Gold!

Unrealistically

19.5k Powell body
14k mechanism, fully engraved keys
E mech
offset G
open holes
B foot
D# roller
C# trill

Headjoint :
Lafin gold headjont with adler wings
engraved headjoint with sides of embrochure plate encrusted in diamonds
Gem encrusted gold crown with engraving


But then again, being a future dentist, maybe that isn't unrealistic!!!

I'd Like a flute that can fly

why?!

To be honest I love the flute I already have (even if it is a Trevor James ) - I spent nearly £2000 on it and to be honest I don't see the point in spending much more on a flute. In my opinion a good flautist (which currently I am not) can make any flute sound good.

I'd love some engraving on it though.....

Of course a good flautist can sound great on any flute - I've said so myself very often. Doesn't mean that one can't have a dream flute, and certainly there are ways a flute can be improved not just tonally but ergonomically and appearance wise (two factors which make me covet a John Lunn flute! ) and there's no doubt that a good headjoint will give the good flautist more potential tones sounds etc to create.

Yes of course any flautist can make flute in good order sound good, but they still choose to have a nicer flute than the very basic they can make sound nice. James Galway doesnt go round playing his Muramatsu EX even though he sounds pretty much the same as when he plays his gold flutes. Same with any other famous flautist.

I agree to a point. As reasonably competant clarinettist I can sound good on my plastic regent, yamaha 34 and my yamaha SE. Given enough time to re-familiarise myself with the instruments I think it would be hard to tell from the sound alone which I'm playing. The difference is the effort required to get the variety of sound I want and the ease of playing at the extremes of the dynamic range (ppp, fff) all are possible on any of my instruments, I sound like me on all of them. But by picking the better instruments I can put more of my energy into the musicality of what I'm playing rather than the mechanics of making a good sound.

In 2005 the price of a silver headjoint was £1200, Its probably more now due to huge demand!

If it flyd away I dont have to play it

Rather than have a flute that flys away, you might be better spending your money on no flute at all!

Come on flautists share your dream flute ideas!

Well put

John Lunn has now retired from flute making to go full time writing......

I know - but I couldn't afford one anyway so it makes no difference. We're talking dreams here!

My boyfriend always says that when(more like if...) he gets rich he'll buy me a gold flute, just for decoration!

Im going to do that too! (but just going to use one of the cheap gold plated ones off ebay )

well as long as it looks expensive...

I want to get one of those cheap purple and silver piccolos off ebay - just for fun!! Then again, it would probably be better than my current piccolo!!

I think the piccolos on ebay are considered disposable, so unless your current one is falling to bits or made of alluminium I doubt it could be any worse.

I have a gold plated piccolo off ebay, cost me around £50 and I have used it for the past 2 years and its been great! Of course its not perfect, the mechanism is hard work and tuning needs a lot of adjustment but that you can get used to. Think ive done well to make it last for 2 years with no probs!

My current one had to be taped together and is now always a semi-tone flat.

You must have got lucky!