Hi,

I'm new to this list and, what I'm discovering is, the very rewarding yet complicated world of flutes!

My daughter is in the middle (we hope) of the search for a flute that will take her through college and beyond. She has tried all kinds of flutes and has narrowed the list to Brannen, Nagahara and Muramatsu. Yesterday, more out of frustration than anything else, she put a Lafin silver HJ with a platinum riser on a Muramatsu DS .018 and fell in love!! It sounds absolutely amazing with one issue - the mechanism on the DS is, in her words "clunky". You can see it when she plays fast passages. This is a new flute and sounds amazing. This is the third DS that she has tried and all three have had this issue in some form or another.

Can anyone here tell me whether or not this is typical of the Muramatsu DS? We would love to buy this combination but the clunky action of the mechanism is a deal breaker. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Curious as to what your daughter thought of the Brannen Brögger Mekanik mechanism? IMO, it is buttery smooth. When I compare my Brannen flute with my Haynes (backup flute), it is like day and night. Did she try the Lafin HJ with a Brannen .018" body?

She loves the action on the Brannen and tried the HJ on the .018 at a convention and really liked it. Unfortunately the body that she tried it on after that just wasn't great. It seemed dull, if that makes sense. The Muramatsu DS sounded sooooo much better! We've been at this for about a month and a half and she's tried a bunch of flutes but this combination was amazing!!!

Since these flutes are handmade, each has its unique characteristics. I tried a few Muramatsu DS side-by-side with a few EX's and really liked one of the EX's, and I ended up buying that instead. I tried a few Brannens as well, and the Lafin headjoint I bought sounded better on some bodies that others. If your daughter likes the sound on a DS, but doesn't like the mechanism, then try your headjoint with a body from another maker.

If your daughter really liked the Brannen .018 body that she tried at the convention, I do know that Brannen will sell you that body. The only thing is that they will not release that body to you until they can make a replacement for their demo lineup. A friend of mine did exactly that. He already had his 14K HJ and was searching long and hard for the perfect body to match (lol, that sounds funny). He found it at the NFA convention several years ago. They marked that body as "SOLD" and he had to wait 4 months for them to make a replacement. They did send him "glamour" photos that he could look at while he waited.

As the other poster said, the problem with custom handmade flutes is that they are all different. The flute that is made for you may or may not be to your liking. Good luck to your daughter with her search.
You really can't go wrong with any of her choices. Another friend of mine fell in love with a 14K Nagahara at the NFA Convention several years ago. But for him, he just waited for them to make the flute. I played on my teacher's spare Muramatsu back in the 1970s while waiting for my Haynes to be made.

It's funny that you should mention the possibility of buying the floor model Brannen, I just called the rep and she is sending us the demo body next week for a trial! I'm also having another DS sent so she can see if the HJ sounds as good with that one as it did with the one with the "clunky" mechanism. Personally, I'm rooting for the DS since it will cost about $4000 less than the Brannen body!

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for taking the time to reply to my post!

Nancy