Flutes & the Materials They are Made Out Of

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking all of the different flutes that flutes can be made out of, as I get asked about this a lot.

It's only going to be brief overview to give you an idea in todays post, but I am hoping to touch on this some more further down the line.

Silver Nickel

Silver Nickel flutes are nickel flutes that have been silver plated; and this is what most student flutes are made of to start you off on your flute journey. Silver Nickel flutes are also very durable, and free blowing to make easier for a beginner player to get used to playing the flute.

Silver 

There's a few variants when it comes to having silver on your flute; and you can have a silver headjoint with a silver nickel body, silver body and headjoint with silver nickel mechanism or silver body, headjoint and mechanism.

With silver you are able to produce a lot more tonal colours, depth of sound and also the sound projects a little further. 

There's three types of silver on the market for flutes, and they are :-

925 Silver - Produces a brighter sound

958 Silver - Produces a darker sound

998 Silver - This is essentially pure silver, and there's only one or two flute brands that produce flutes made up of 998 silver. 998 silver produces an even darker sound compared to 958 silver.

Gold

You get flutes made from 9k, 14k and 18k gold, and these can either be yellow gold or rose gold. Yes, rose gold flutes are an actual thing.

All gold flutes can be a bit too much for some flutes, due to them producing a naturally rich tone, whereas rose gold flutes are a little more mellow within there tonal colours.

If you do want a gold flute, but you find it a bit much; what some players do is opt for an all silver mechanism just to mellow out the sound.

Another thing to also note is that gold flutes don't project in the same way as a silver flute.

Platinum

Platinum flutes are some of the most expensive flutes on the market, and also some of the heaviest flutes on the market. 

A platinum flute produces a rich tone that has a lot depth to sound, but they also produce a very powerful sound. So, projection shouldn't be an issue with a platinum flute.

If you fancied a platinum flute, but they are outside your budget there is an option for a platinum clad flute. A platinum clad flute is a silver flute that has a thick coating of platinum over the top.

You can also buy full platinum flutes or platinum flutes with a blend of either silver or 14k rose gold.

I hope this post gives you a little more of understanding of the different metals that flutes can be made from, and a little more understanding on what different tonal colours and projection each metal has.