RudallRose wrote:Robert's records of the 8key flutes begin very late in the serial number series, unfortunately. I have several other more modern flutes in normal pitch, so this old one will be added to my collection just for fun and because its so old and "rare"
I know these old flutes can be in a high pitch. This was news to me.Īnd I was totally aware of the pitch not being 440Hz. always listed their timber as cocuswood (or grenadilla/blackwood when they offered that). But "rosewood" as such was not normally used for making flutes, and RC&Co. You can look all that up in old threads here and in other online resources if you're interested. Cocuswood is not botanically a rosewood (though the common woodwind timber African blackwood/grenadilla is). Rosewoods are a large group of tropical hardwoods with assorted properties and best uses in joinery etc. This looks to antiques/furniture people like a Rosewood so they call it that and the (mis)usage has become common in auctions, including eBay.
If you have a desire to know when your Rudall/Rose simple system flute was likely manufactured, and it's before the numbers Robert Bigio has in the record, I'm happy to help. Newspapers of the time offer a more precise dating of when addresses were changed based on advertisements of product, lessons or some other item.Īgain, all these dates were on my website, which was being pirated for its photos by many sources, both ilicit and not. The flutes themselves sometiimes give the info, often from something contained within the case, such as a handwritten note on a certificate or slip of paper with a date, or the name engraved on the case cartouche or on a decorative band or lip plate. The numbers I've been able to devise, and again based only on best-guess work from the other information at hand from all sources, seem to be closer to a reality. The lLangwill's book offers some timeframe as well based on address/stamp but that's not entirely reliable. There are some resources out there, notably Andrw Pickering, whose number guesses are based on average annual manufacture, which aren't that far off, it appears. Robert's records of the 8key flutes begin very late in the serial number series, unfortunately. It won't be a consolation, but many years ago I made a very similar, expensive mistake.
I'm very sorry indeed if you didn't know and my information is upsetting. I do hope you knew it would be High Pitch and didn't mind. Quality and condition don't make much difference, nor does the recent glut of HP RC flutes at "over-optimistic", not to say inflated, unrealistic and disingenuous prices on eBay. A Concert Pitch one is worth about 5 times as much or more. flute like this should not cost more than about £350-400 in good playing condition. You won't find anyone today willing to undertake such a task (even if they have suitable timber!) for a cost much less than a brand new high class Böhm flute! themselves offered re-pitching of their older High Pitch flutes - only usefully achievable by making new, longer and longer-scaled body and foot tubes and expanding the mechanism to fit the new tubes. This should be a consideration in deciding to spend any further money on e.g. If the vendor told you it could be played at modern pitch, they lied. A longer head or having the tenon extended will be no better. Pulling the head way out may get you a chosen reference note at Concert Pitch, but the rest of the scale will be unusably distorted. There is no practical/viable/cost effective remedy for this fact. The bad news (sorry if you didn't realise this) is that, with a sounding length of 580mm, it is a pretty High Pitch instrument (above A=450) and will not be usable in ensemble at modern pitch. This places it at the cheaper end of their output, but it will still be a good quality instrument. Your flute has nickel-silver fittings which are unlikely ever to have been silver plated.