FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions
The following are answers to questions that are frequently asked of Martin Doyle about his flutes and flute-making.
Q: What difference is there between your 'Traditional' and 'Celtic' style flutes?
A: The appearance is the only difference. The two styles are technically identical inside and sound the same. They appear different because of the difference in shape on the outside and the different configuration of rings. But inside they are identical.
Q: What is the process of making a flute?
A: When the timber comes to my workshop, the blank sticks are first of all bored and then left to settle. After a number of weeks of settling, they are reamed and then left to settle again. Then they are turned, the finger holes are cut into them and they are left to settle again. They are then polished, the parts are put together and the rings are added and the flute is finished at that point.
Q: Are the headjoints that you make with tuning slides fully lined?
A: No, my headjoints are not fully lined. The reason for that is the more metal you put inside a flute, the more of the wooden sound you loose. So I prefer a completely unlined head joint without any tuning slide for the sake of tone. Then after that, as a compromise, I will use a short tuning slide which doesn't fill the head-joint completely to retain as much of the wooden tone as possible. Flutes with headjoints that are fully lined often give a very metallic sound.
Q: Does a tuning slide add much weight to a flute?
A: The addition of a tuning slide certainly makes a flute very heavy if the metal used is very thick. The tuning slides I make have very thin walls. The wall thickness on my tuning slides is one quarter of a millimetre, so that means that when you have a tuning slide which has a nineteen millimetre bore, the outside of the outer tube is twenty millimetres. So it's nineteen on the inside and twenty on the outside and the four wall thickness equals one millimetre — that's four quarters. Lot's of other tuning slides that I have seen have half millimetre wall thickness but it tends to make the flute very heavy.
Q: Does having a tuning slide increase the chance of the headjoint cracking?
A: It can do. One of the main problems with putting metal inside timber is that timber is inclined to move with climate and temperature changes and metal doesn't move to the same degree. So if timber wants to move but is constricted by the metal inside, it has a tendency to crack. If the metal is very thin walled, the metal will give a little bit with the movement of the flute and if the head is not fully lined, well then over the distance of the head the timber can move and the contact with the metal is only thirty millimetres of the head's length. So therefore it reduces the danger of cracking by quite a lot.
Q: Do your flutes without tuning slides sharpen when they are warmed up?
A: Yes they do and how that's compensated is that the joint of the flute is a tuning devise and can be pulled out up to five millimetres. This allows all of the tuning that will be necessary to keep the flute perfectly in the pitch it's designed to be in.
What is a simple system wooden flute (aka 'Irish flute')?
The term simple system refers to conical-bore flute that was in use before Theobald Boehm introduced his cylindrical-bore design in the mid-19th century. With the change to the Boehm system, the old simple system flutes were adopted by Irish traditional musicians and are now known universally as Irish flutes.
Simple system or Irish flutes are usually made of timbers such as cocus, grenadilla (aka: African blackwood and mpingo) rosewood, ebony, and boxwood. They have six tone-holes and anywhere from zero to thirteen keys. Many experienced Irish flute players prefer six or eight key flutes, although much of the traditional Irish repertoire may be played on a keyless flute. Tin or penny whistles use exactly the same fingering and are often the instrument upon which flute players begin.
Here are some shortcuts to informative pages on Martin Doyle Flutes:
- About: details about Martin Doyle — his life and development as a flute maker.
- Flutes: discriptions of the flutes Martin Doyle makes.
- Flute Prices: prices of Martin Doyle Flutes.
- Wooden Headjoints: Martin Doyle's thin-wall wooden headjoints crafted for concert flutes.
- Testimonials: comments from owners of Martin Doyle flutes.
- Links: a helpful page of links.