I'm looking to sell my lefty keyed M&E flute. This flute has lots of goodies that aren't normally available for sale and it's an awesome tooter. I've used it for many years in gigs and sessions all over and it's a brilliant flute. Alas, I don't play flute as often as I used to, and when I do it's usually on my antique 8-key lefty Firth & Pond. Left handed keyed flutes are extremely difficult to come by, usually have to be specially ordered and often payed extra for. Hammy for example charges €230 extra for a lefty keyed flute. This one had to be specially ordered and the keys had to be handmade especially for this flute. Just to be clear, left handed is holding the flute to your left and with the right hand on top.
The flute is a concert pitch (D) M&E Rudall & Rose model flute in polymer made by Michael Cronnolly of Ireland. Can't remember exactly when I got it but it must have been around 2003-2004 or so. It has five hand forged sterling silver keys (Eb, short F, G#, Bb and C) made by Michael himself. Observe that these are not the blocky nickel silver asian clarinet keys he usually puts on the flutes but hand made sterling silver ones. They are much sleeker, although a bit crude. You also get an extra headjoint for the flute. It's a cocobolo headjoint which is half lined so the embouchure chimney has no metal at the bottom (this is pure custom, he doesn't usually do this). The wooden headjoint has a more modern embouchure cut resembling a two semi circles embouchure whereas the standard polymer headjoint has the traditional elliptical embouchure he normally makes (and which is probably modelled after the embouchure on the Rudall & Rose flute he copied the design of).
The flute is in excellent condition except two things. Firstly, the pads need replacing. The flute is playable as it is but the pads are leaking slightly so it will be perfect after they are replaced. Any woodwind repair guy or music shop that deals with clarinets, oboes and the like can do this for a few bucks, or you can do it yourself easily if you buy new pads. I could have it made for you but that could take time since I'm extremely busy at the moment. The other thing is that the barrel for the wooden headjoint has a crack. It's been repaired with super glue and it's stable and doesn't leak at all so this should be considered an aesthetic fault only. However, it's not too pretty (pics below), but turn that side towards the player and no one will ever notice but you. The wooden headjoint is more or less a bonus anyway.
This flute is, as I said, a brilliant instrument. It's got great volume, great versatility, great responce, great tone, etc. M&E:s are known to be very good playing instruments but quite crude and ugly looking. I'll let everyone else judge what's pretty and what's not. It's a sturdy flute, no doubt about that. These are flutes for people who care mostly about sound and playability and less about aesthetics. The polymer headjoint is the standard one as was said. If you want to know what it can sound like, search for m&e flute on youtube, there are lots of clips there. Also I just noticed that there's a link to a clip of me playing this exact flute in my signature (but you'd be better off going to youtube and listen to what a good player can do with it). The recording of my old band which is below is also played on this flute, with the wooden headjoint if I remember correctly. The wooden headjoint with the two semi-circles embouchure has a slightly more edgy tone with the wooden timbre and is a little easier to play. I should add also that the wooden headjoint should be broken in like a new one because it hasn't seen extensive playing for quite a while.
Pictures of the flute here (click on the image for an enlarged version, opens in a new tab):
The flute is supplied with M&E:s standard case as seen in one of the pics. Nothing fancy but it does it's job of protecting the flute from knocks. I can ship worldwide at buyers expense. As for the price: Give me an offer. I can't remember exactly what I paid for it 8-10 years ago when I bought it but it must have been in the region of $1200-1400 USD in todays monetary value. I'll consider any offers
Contact me via e-mail or PM and we'll work out the details. I'll try to check in here from time to time. I'm very busy this week but I'm usually able to check my inbox and reply once a day.
Cheers