Altus A9-REO Flute

What they say

This newly refined Altus A9 follows on from the 907, one of the most popular upgrades for the advancing flute player. Complete with a redesigned headjoint made from .958 Britannia silver rather than the standard sterling silver, this flute allows players of all levels to explore a wider tonal palette. This new range from Altus also features a seamed body tube and stands out in this price range for being one of the few available that is reminiscent of great instruments from late 19th century France. Combined with the newly evolved "Altus Scale", this flute is full of wonderful overtones and precisely tuned harmonics enabling the developing player to explore and expand their tone and musical expression.

Redesigned Headjoint

Based on the S-cut headjoint found in the 907 range as well as others, this headjoint has been cut to be more concave on the blowing side and a little more open. This allows for a more open and free blowing instrument with a rapid response, particularly between registers. However, it still maintains the ability to produce the same wide colour palette that the S-cut is known for.

Seamed Body Tube

Most modern day flutes are made with a drawn body tube - a flat disc of metal is drawn or pulled into a cylinder shape under high pressure. This process is relatively quick and cheap compared to seaming a body tube. A seamed body tube is made by taking a flat piece of metal and heat-forming it into a cylinder on a mandrel before carefully soldering the seam. When the metal is worked under heat, it is hardened and can help brighten the sound of the instrument. This method was used by flutes makers in the late 19th Century such as Louis Lot and Bonneville, as the technology to make drawn body tubes was not available or not advanced enough to be successful.

The Altus Scale allows players to produce a sound with the correct harmonic structure at the correct pitch. It was carefully calculated to enable effortless intonation, perfectly tuned harmonics, evenness of sound, and exceptionally well-balanced registers. This scale features a soldered C# tone hole as standard on all models. The C# tone hole operation is especially important in the Boehm system and has multiple purposes. It not only produces the original C# note, but it also acts as a vent hole for many notes. The ideal scale requires having its specific key height set properly.

Altus continually develops the Altus Scale through collaboration with some of the world’s foremost players to make our flutes a better instrument for musical expression. The scale is the culmination of years of research and development in collaboration with Mr. William Bennett, one of the world's foremost musicians and a leading authority on flute scales. The core value has always been simple: to produce a sound with the right harmonic structure at the right pitch. The meticulous design of the Altus flute and its uncompromised scale offers excellent intonation, carefully tuned harmonics, and balanced registers.

Ag958

A traditionally created silver alloy composed of 95.8% silver, also dubbed the Britannia Silver for its historic existence in British coinage. Altus flutes were first created with this alloy for a Renaissance of 19th century flute sound. This alloy has an increased density and is considerably softer than Sterling Silver, allowing instruments to make darker and richer tonal color without the use of greater wall thickness.

Headjoint: .958 Britannia silver

Lip Plate and Riser: .925 Sterling silver

Body and Footjoint: Silver plated nickel silver with C foot

Key Mechanism: Silver plated nickel silver with pointed key arms

Key Style: Open hole, offset G, split E

Tone Holes: Drawn with soldered C#

Accessories: Hard case and case cover with shoulder strap, cleaning rod, inner cleaning gauze, polishing cloth, open hole plugs