I recently purchased an unmarked flute off of ebay and I am hoping that somebody here may be able to help me identify it. I actually expected to be buying a wall hanger, but there are some aspects about it that intrigue me. I could very well have a cheap Chinese flute, but it does not have the feel of the cheap flutes that I have handled.
There is what I can only guess is a serial number (6xxx)and a 0 stamped on all three of the pieces (all of the numbers match). No manufacturer marks anywhere.
The head joint does not show any signs of being plated as the other 3 flutes in the house do. The crown is rather tall compared to the others and has a snake like design. The lip plate is concave and the embouchure hole is almost square.
The case looks to be quite old, and does not have any manufacturer's mark either.
I want to thank you in advance for any help that you may be able to give.
I have another anonymous flute, recently restored, that I'd like some help identifying. I originally bought this flute on eBay with the expectation that it would be a generic, poor quality German flute that I could use as a kind of experimental platform for practicing retuning techniques. Once I got it into decent enough shape to be able to play, I found that it was in A=440 and that it played surprisingly well. I also found that it had a significantly smaller bore and smaller tone holes than any other flute I've played, and so required very little air. Despite this it had a decent sound - not what I would consider a quiet flute, but a bit quieter than say a Firth Hall & Pond, and still quite resonant with a decent low D.
These playing characteristics make it feel quite different to the other German (Nach Meyer type) flutes I've worked on. It also looks quite different, in that it has a small round embouchure, and does not have the angled G# key that is very common in German flutes. In terms of tuning anomalies, its second octave G was decidedly sharp, and its second octave A a bit sharp too. The first octave notes were not too bad though. So I did a little retuning with shellac to reduce the tone hole size for those notes without adjusting their position (i.e., build up the south side). This seems to have pulled them quite well into tune.
In terms of repairs, it required the head lining and tuning slide lining to be pulled in order to ream and repair cracks. All rings were originally lose, so it has been slowly rehydrated, rings all refitted/glued, complete rekey with leather pads, oiling, polishing etc, etc. For the past few weeks its been in good playing condition, so I think I've succeeded in bringing it back to life. Now I wonder what exactly it is. If you have any ideas about the likely origins of this flute I'd appreciate hearing them. It has no makers marks.
board wrote: In terms of tuning anomalies, its second octave G was decidedly sharp, and its second octave A a bit sharp too. The first octave notes were not too bad though. So I did a little retuning with shellac to reduce the tone hole size for those notes without adjusting their position (i.e., build up the south side). This seems to have pulled them quite well into tune.
This is odd.. To "lower" those notes as you described, the north side would need the application. This moves the effective tone hole center south lowering the pitch. (it also reduces the diameter). What you have accomplished moves the effective center north sharpening the pitch. Depending how much you did, you will also affect the voicing as the local cutoff frequency in that area will be affected. This process will also affect the register's relative tuning differently.
If you want to experiment with tone hole alterations for voicing and tuning look in the Ed Kottick book on recorder tuning from McGinnis and Marx Publishing.
