Looking for plastic Baroque flute

[glauber]

Hi, Jordan, sure!

I've only had it for 2 days, but i can say a few things. Keep in mind that i have other plastic flutes, so i'm not plastic-averse. The first challenge is to go past the fact that it is a mass-produced plastic thing.

Having said that, i like it very much. Why would the recorder players have all the cheap plastic flutes? I think it sounds close to the Real Thing (i have a wooden Grenser flute by Rod Cameron) and i'm not afraid to take it to places where i wouldn't take my good flute.

Should you buy one?

First you have to think why you want a flute: if you want to play Baroque music with other early music aficionados, you'll probably want the other Aulos model (the "ivory" Stanesby), because it's on the pitch most commonly used for Baroque music (A=415 or one semitone lower than modern pitch). Also, the Grenser is a late model, considered more of a Classic (Mozart) flute than true Baroque, so again, you may be better off with a different model.

If you want to play Irish music, you'll probably better off with one of Doug Tipple's PCV pipe flutes, or M&E. If you're used to a large-holed Irish wooden flute, the Grenser will feel puny.

What's a Grenser good for? I think it's an adequate flute if you want to investigate using the Baroque 1-keyed flute for playing modern music (e.g.: jazz). It may also be a good flute to take with you when traveling, to practice on Baroque and Classical music, and still be able to take to an Irish session if you find one.

These are just my opinions, of course. Your mileage may vary.

One final note: the cork in the Aulos i got is not fixed in place, but moves freely, as it's common in Baroque flutes (the players then wanted the freedom to adjust the position of the cork where they thought best). This was a surprise - i wasn't expecting it to be authentic to this point, but it even has a screw cap to help adjusting the cork, as the real Grensers do. It doesn't have the foot adjustment, since it comes only in modern pitch (A=440Hz).

glauber

[JS]

Thanks for the helpful reply. I was wondering if the Aulos might be useful for English Country Dance, as a sort of gateway to the Baroque. Sounds like it might.