 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: andy collins
Date: 2009-06-20 18:45
Not exactly a clarinet question but slightly related - can anyone, I expect Chris can, tell me a little about B&H Imperial flutes? Are these a decent instrument as their clarinet counterparts are? I understand the body to be solid silver and the keywork to be silver plated - am I correct?
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2009-06-20 20:20
Imperial flutes were made in grenadilla, ebonite and sterling silver - the sterling silver ones had solid silver keys and every piece carried a hallmark. Most of the Imperials were used by the Armed Forces bands in the UK and across the former British Empire, and you'll probably find them with the broad arrow and the letters 'A P' stamped on them.
The sterling silver ones had integral body and footjoint sockets stretched from the same tubing as the main body and footjoint tubing with rolled 'rings' (instead of soldered on sockets with turned and soldered on rings) and were pretty much identical in build to the nickel plated Regent and silver plated Edgware and Emperor flutes - and may have had the dreaded rubber 'Perma Pads' installed.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2009-06-26 20:41
To be frank, whilst B&H Imperial clarinets were very good in their day I don't think they ever made a half-decent flute in any model. Their Oboes and Bassoons weren't much to write home about either. Aside from clarinets their forte was in brass instruments (though not perhaps french horns).
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2009-06-26 21:50
I'm going to disagree with Norman on the Imperial oboes, especially the older ones which are pretty decent instruments (not so much the most recent ones from the '70s-to '80s which were pretty crude). Some Imperial oboes were still being played professionally by orchestral players until fairly recently (until they went over to Howarth XLs).
But the solid silver Imperial flutes, even though they may be made entirely in sterling silver, don't play that much better than the Regents and Edgwares of the same age as they're only solid silver versions of them.
The 'Cooper Scale' ones which came in either in the late '70s or early '80s had solid silver bodies, but silver plated keywork (and again aren't much cop). These were later rebranded as Buffets and were still made in the UK until the late '90s when production shifted to Schreiber in Germany not long after the new version was introduced.
In all honesty, a 20+ year old Yamaha 211S in good working order will easily outplay any B&H flute.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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