F#m Palo Santo Flute With Inlays
Palo Santo translates literally to "Holy Stick". This wood intrigued me as it has a wonderful, sweet, musky odor. The wood and sawdust are often used as incense. One of my customers sent me a tiny piece of this wood as a gift. After lighting it for a few moments and savoring the smell as the smoke wafted up from the wood, I was immediately smitten. I knew nothing about this wood beforehand, but after that experience I knew it would make a fabulous flute, if only for the enchanting aroma. Well, as it turned out, this wood not only has as smell that just takes you away, the tone is sweet and pure. It is an extremely heavy, oily wood. I'm sure it would be nearly impossible to glue with all the oil content, but since this is a one piece instrument, the glue part is not an issue. This flute weighs in at a whopping 1 1/4 lbs. I don't think I've ever made a single flute that's this heavy. I have finished this particular flute with Danish Oil so that we can feel the natural grain of the wood as well as enjoy the wonderful aroma. I've done these with Polyurethane, but this wood is so oily, it does not need a finish that will mask the feel and the incense.
I've put together a couple of sound samples, so you can hear how this instrument plays. It will play every note that the Native American style flute is capable of. It is one of the sweetest sounding instruments I've made. The links to the sound samples are below this paragraph. One is "dry" with no enhancement and the other has reverb added. You hear this effect on almost all the Native American flute music recorded today.
This flute is aso available in Am, Gm, & Em by special request. Just drop me a line @ crowflutes@aol.com or call. 520-237-5312
Listen to natural room sound of this flute here.
Listen to this flute with reverb (canyon sound) here.
A short version of "Danny Boy" played with this flute.