I understand that these are great flutes but have never tried one.
Any opinions or experiences about Amon Olorin flutes out there?

http://www.aoflutes.com/main.htm

Best wishes,
Deasan

Really good flutes, but alternative tuning. That means not standard fingering.

Thin wall western cedar, as I recall, on the wooden flutes. Nakai's flute maker.

Everything Rick said is exactly right, beginning with the "really good flutes" part. As far as the fingering pattern for Ken's work, you can play the common pentatonic NAF scale (lowest to highest notes) with the following fingerings:

(X=hole closed, O=hole open)


Mouth End----------Bore End
____________________________________

XXX XXX

XXX XXO

XXX XOO

XXX OOO

XOX OOO

OOX XOO

Thank you Rick and Keith. A fine evening to you both.

On Amon Olorin flutes I usually use this fingering for that highest note:

OXO OOO

(instead of OOX OOO "standard" fingering). It's a hair sharper in pitch than the OOX XOO fingering Keith mentioned. You can substitute either one of those alternate fingerings, OXO OOO or OOX XOO, depending on the song and the finger transitions required.

The more flutes I play by other makers the more I like my Amon Olorins. I've got four of them. They're light weight, thin walled, narrow bored, responsive, go easily above the octave, and they really sing.

Coatlique

Thanks, Coatlique, I need to start trying that fingering...but you know that whole old dogs/new tricks thing.

I really like my Amon Olorin flutes too. The first flute I got was one of Ken's. Now I have 2 1/2 of them (that ABS plastic model is one mouthpiece end with two interchangeable bores in different keys).

KG

I have the ABS with two barrels, but still haven't found time to really learn the fingering. I really think it just isn't very intuitive.

Using that method of counting I've got 4 1/2 of his flutes

Coatlique