A question for those who own or have played gold flutes

pied_piper · Post by **pied_piper** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:12 am

I'll bet we can all play a well tempered scale based on the twelfth root of two...

sidekicker · Post by **sidekicker** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:02 am

You probably already know what I'm going to say here because I'm a true Brannen boy. However, I was in a similar situation to you when I bought my gold Brannen. I, too, had the head (which also happened to be a Brannen) a couple of years before I bought a Brannen body to match it. So it is perfectly possible to just buy the body. Also, always make sure the tone holes are also gold. I found that I preferred the silver mech to the all gold Brannen; and it surprised me. But there was just no comparison for me. It wasn't a weight issue for me; it was clearly a sound issue. There was just something about it that gave a sense of magic to the sound. I think fluteguy played my flute at the Convention at which I bought it; but I'm not sure if my head was on it or not. I don't think it was. I preferred my head far more than the one that happened to come with that flute; perhaps because I had been playing it for a couple of years already on my Haynes (which is about the age of yours if I remember correctly).

When I matched up my head to the Brannen I now own (which was the demo on the table), it was an instant "this is the one" moment. I'm not kidding. And it took me two decades to find an entirely gold flute apparatus that suited me. You will know when you have the right match up when it comes along. I chose not to have a new body made for me to the same specs because I didn't want to risk losing the sparkle I happened to get from that particular match up. Being handmade, these flutes are always going to be slightly different. So I bought the exact one on the table. I had to wait a few months to get it, though, until they made another duplicate demo, but it was well worth it. I have absolutely no regrets and have been extremely pleased with my head and instrument body. I have continued to try other gold heads since, and still nothing compares to what I already have. Once you find what is right for you, you will know instantly. By the way, if you do this at Convention (are you going to Anaheim?) make sure you make an appointment to go to one of the suites for a quieter test (and longer). It's nearly impossible to tell much in a huge room with 2000 flutists playing the Daphnis run, Peter, and Leonore #3.

Also, I have had my flute serviced once already by Brannen. The experience was good overall. They are a fantastic company to deal with. And, once again, I dont' work for Brannen

I just love their flutes.

SK

m3the01 · Post by **m3the01** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 1:25 pm

I also do not work for brannen, but would argue brannen is the premier flute company in the world. They are simply amazing, how they make time for people visiting their factory, their staff, the ability to demo a wide range of instruments before buying, and they have a certain sparkle to their flutes.

Some fun photos of my trip to Boston and Brannen,

cflutist · Post by **cflutist** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 3:13 pm

m3the01:

Thanks for posting the pictures ... gosh those flutes are beautiful to look at

m3the01 · Post by **m3the01** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:32 pm

Anytime, the ones on the piano are platinum and gold. I played the silver one the most, because it was the one of interest for myself. Nice to be able to try out 12 headjoints,

fluteguy18 · Post by **fluteguy18** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 10:33 pm

sidekicker wrote: Also, always make sure the tone holes are also gold.

I have to differ on this one. I love gold flutes, but if they have gold toneholes I simply CANNOT get my articulation to speak well in the lower register. It is very mushy for me. So... this is just a preference. For me at least, my favorite combination has been consistently a 10k tube with silver toneholes and mechanism for Brannen. This is not necessarily so with other companies. I tried a Straubinger flute (not pads, a flute) that was 14k rose gold and the sound was like sunshine- simply radiant. Everything was crisp and clear and it had all gold tone holes and mechanism.

SK-
I did indeed get to play your flute at the Convention. It is quite colorful which is what I remember you liked so much about it. Oh, and since the PM feature has been disabled at the moment... do you remember that email I sent you a while ago? I was still hoping to hear your thoughts if you don't mind.

cflutist · Post by **cflutist** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 10:58 pm

m3the01:

Was wondering if you got to try the Lafin headjoints while you were there and what you thought of them as compared to the Brannen ones.

A while ago, there was another flutist in the orchestra who had a 14K Lafin HJ with a 14K Pearl flute. She had the most beautiful tone. She was a college student whose dad was an orthopedic surgeon which explains her nice flute. (LOL she told me her dad was always on her case about wearing high heels).

m3the01 · Post by **m3the01** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 7:31 am

Yes i got to try six lafin headjoints while i was there, i did like the old style cuts from lafin but not the moderns. They were pretty solid and had good consistency. It was strange though, with the brannen headjoints i really noticed the different risers. However, with the lafin i felt no difference from gold to platinum.

The lafin headjoints are the back six

cflutist · Post by **cflutist** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 7:44 am

Made my 50% deposit with Brannen today. Ordered the silver mechanism, 14K body, toneholes and rings, C# trill, Split-E, and D# roller.

Now the 5 month wait

m3the01 · Post by **m3the01** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:28 am

Ur sooo lucky!!! Congrats!!! Really great flutes, try remarkable.

Post pics, PS u did demo one of these right?

cflutist · Post by **cflutist** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 9:25 am

Actually no I didn't, but have played my friend's flute in the past, and it was amazing.

Zevang · Post by **Zevang** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:08 pm

cflutist,

Indeed I'm a part time dedicated programmer, now concentrating in mainframe matters, you know, Cobol, JCL, VSam files, etc... But Java continues to be a good flavor. In this field everything happens according to the market. But I'm much more a flutist than a tech.

About the issues I've heard concerning flutes with inline G and Split-E, I'm sure it was not about Haynes flutes.
In my case, the Sankyo I use doesn't seem to have any problems in intonation because of the G ring. But, still, as you pointed very well some posts ago, it's really a personal preference.

cflutist · Post by **cflutist** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:19 pm

Zevang -

Yep very familiar with Cobol, JCL, VSAM. The systems I manage also use IMS DB/DC, GSAM and MFS.

Remember Y2K? We didn't have a problem because our dates were already CCYYMMDD in COMP-3 but we still went 24x7 for weeks. I don't know what they were worried about.

Zevang · Post by **Zevang** » Sun May 02, 2010 12:49 am

Wow, good to see I'm not alone

Indeed, Y2K was a mess, but at the end it was pretty much like some predictions of "the end of the world", showed to be more speculation than real fact. At the end, some people (we technicians) made some money out of it and the employers kept their hapinness and the businesses running. Much better than a financial crisis huh!

P.S. For the other readers: sorry for this off-topic.

cflutist · Post by **cflutist** » Sun May 02, 2010 7:34 am

Forgot about the Y2K "golden handcuffs" as we called it.

My bonus was enough to buy two Brannen 14K flutes (with 14K mechanism based on the 1998 price list that I still have). My employer made two payments, one in 1999 and the other in mid 2000. It was really obvious who got the bonuses because there was a mass exodus a week after the second payment was made.

See back on topic