Old vs. New Gemeinhardts
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Old vs. New Gemeinhardts
Hi everyone. I have a question about Gemeinhardts in general. I've got a handmade Japanese Pearl 795 Elegante that is my main flute, but I'm looking for a plateau model just to tinker around with. I know the perceptions of current Gemeinhardt flutes, and I know that nothing mass-produced will come anywhere near in rivaling the sound and scale of my 795...but that's not what I'm looking for. I just want a silver plateau flute that has reasonably decent intonation and projection, and was wondering if the old Gemeinhardts might have been a little better made (ie: were higher quality) than the current flutes. I learned on a model 3 back 15 years ago, and while it was great at the time, I have obviously become much, much better, and now require more from even a "backup" flute. Does anyone have any thoughts on these older models from Gemeinhardt? Thanks!
I have a Gemmie 5SS from the early 1970s - handmade all silver including keys, plateau, offset, c foot, white gold springs, soldered tone holes (I think), heavy wall, hand cut headjoint. After a recent overhaul the mechanism has a nice solid but smooth feel to it. However, the headjoint is poor by modern standards, and plays less well than a plated CY cut student Yamaha headjoint.
It was common to need to get the headjoint shortened a bit to get the flute playing up to pitch. Also, because of the strange scale, putting another headjoint on is not simple. When I tried fitting a yamaha headjoint, the tone was better but intonation especially in the the third octave went way out of whack.
This is a high spec Gemeinhardt flute for its time, I would imagine that the lower models would be even more of a problem. I have seen used 5SS Gemmies for sale for approx $1K US.
If you want a back-up plateau model flute I would suggest getting a used 200 series Yamaha and getting it overhauled by a good flute technician. You will then have a good reliable back-up flute for less than the cost of the vintage Gemmie. Alternatively, since you already play a Pearl, why not get a student Pearl body and put a nice Pearl hand cut pro headjoint on it? Again, you will end up with a pretty darn good back-up flute.
Hope this helps.
It was common to need to get the headjoint shortened a bit to get the flute playing up to pitch. Also, because of the strange scale, putting another headjoint on is not simple. When I tried fitting a yamaha headjoint, the tone was better but intonation especially in the the third octave went way out of whack.
This is a high spec Gemeinhardt flute for its time, I would imagine that the lower models would be even more of a problem. I have seen used 5SS Gemmies for sale for approx $1K US.
If you want a back-up plateau model flute I would suggest getting a used 200 series Yamaha and getting it overhauled by a good flute technician. You will then have a good reliable back-up flute for less than the cost of the vintage Gemmie. Alternatively, since you already play a Pearl, why not get a student Pearl body and put a nice Pearl hand cut pro headjoint on it? Again, you will end up with a pretty darn good back-up flute.
Hope this helps.