THE SIGNATURE FLUTE

The Signature flute is similar to the Collectors flute with the addition of the ‘wet-out protection’ device, tunable bird and adjustable sound hole. These three features are unique to the Ancient Territories Signature flutes. They allow the professional or serious player to have a flute that can be played for extended periods with out ‘wetting-out’. They also allows for adjustment of the flutes’ tone to account for different playing conditions and tonal preferences of the musician.

UNIQUE FEATURES AVAILABLE ON THE SIGNATURE FLUTE

If you have had some experience with playing the Native American style flute then you are familiar with the build up of condensed moisture in the slow air chamber and focusing channel of your flute. This phenomena is usually called "wet out". It is caused by the warm moist air of your lungs passing through the cooler slow air chamber of the flute. Some of the moisture in this air condenses on the internal surfaces of the flute - both in the slow air chamber and the focusing channel.

When this happens the smooth flow of air through the focusing channel of the flute is disrupted by droplets of condensed water This phenomena is especially noticeable on cool mornings or in the winter months. You are just getting into your music and then the tone of your flute changes. If you continue it may eventually stop playing altogether If you want to continue playing your flute you must stop, remove the bird from over the focusing channel and wipe and blow out the moisture. This will allow you to continue playing for a while but the problem will return. It can be quite frustrating and it definitely interrupts the flow of your musical experience. Most people find the only solution is to start again with another flute.

I have developed a device which eliminates "wet out". This is not a gimmick - it actually works! This is accomplished by placing a copper tube that passes from the mouthpiece through the inside the slow air chamber. Your breath passes through the copper tube before it goes into the slow air chamber and focusing channel. Most of the moisture in this warm air condenses inside the copper tube before it passes into the slow air chamber. This moisture is channeled away to a holding area at the end of the tube which is located on the bottom of the flute. The condensed water is removed from the flute when you are through playing. It acts in a similar fashion to the spit valve in a trumpet.

The inspiration for this device came from Lew Paxton Price’s book the concert flute. Price suggested circulating the air around copper plates inside the slow air chamber and letting it drain through holes onto buckskin bands. I find my solution to be a more practical and elegant way to accomplish the same thing.

I will not claim that my device eliminates ‘wet out’ entirely. But, I can say that it reduces it by at least eighty percent. This is enough to be a significant improvement. Playing a flute with ‘wet out’ protection changes the playing experience. No more unpleasant interruptions. I would like to incorporate this into every single flute I make. It is on all the flutes that I use personally. Because it is a rather complicated device to make it does substantially increase the time it takes to make a flute. This, of course, must be reflected in the price of the flute. But, in my opinion, you will find that it’s definitely worth it.

PITCH ADJUSTMENT

One of the problem areas of the Native American style flute (especially if you are playing along with other instruments) is that there is no way to adjust the pitch of your flute to bring it in tune with the other instrument you may be playing with. Also, a warm flute will play at a higher pitch than a cold one. So that if your friends have tuned their instruments to your cold flute they will be out of tune with you as your flute warms up. And a flute that is in tune at one playing pressure will go sharp if greater breath pressure is applied. With a concert style flute the flute can be tuned by adjusting the length of the barrel of the flute at a specific slip joint in the flute.

Until now there was no way to adjust the Native American style flute to compensate for these naturally occurring changes in pitch.

In order to overcome these problems I have developed a bird or block that allows a player to tune his flute through a range of about 30 Hz. This will accommodate most temperature and volume changes. This is accomplished by varying the depth of the chimney (that part of the bird flanking either side of the true sound hole).The deeper the chimney flanking the true sound hole and fipple of the flute the lower the pitch. This is because the deeper chimney in effect lengthens the bore of the flute. This variable chimney also allows the player to make some adjustment in tonal quality because a shallow chimney has a brighter tone and a deeper chimney a darker tone.

ADJUSTABLE SOUND HOLE

Another feature found on the Signature Native American style flute is an adjustable sound hole. This is accomplished by making the cutting edge or fipple out of a separate piece of material and inlaying it into the body of the flute so that it can move north and south on the flute. In this way the size of the sound hole is made larger or smaller. Changing the size of the sound hole on the flute makes adjustment of tonal quality possible. It also affects the ease with which the flute can be made to jump octave.

These additional features add considerable additional time to the crafting process. This must be reflected in the price of the flute. If you would like more information and learn how you can have the opportunity to play one of these flutes call me. Serious inquires only, please.