How does the use of silver influence the quality of a flute?
Flutes are made from a variety of materials. Student flutes are normally made from silver-plated nickel, while better quality flutes (sometimes the body and the head and sometimes only the head) are made from silver, or even gold!
I was wondering how the material influences the quality of the instrument. I always thought that maybe silver is easier to handle when manufacturing the flute, and makes the perfect form. Especially for the lip plate I can understand how this can be the case, but for the body and keys I see less of a reason why they should be done in silver.
I don't think that the material of the flute influences its acoustics because it's not the flute that vibrates (like the wood of a cello) but the air in it. But maybe I'm mistaken.
Or is it just because of the higher value of silver that only better flutes are made of it?
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Absolutely the materials that the instrument is made of makes a difference. The Carrot Clarinet is known for a beautiful sound because of its fibrous properties. I have added a link showing different materials used in instruments.
The consensus seems to be- and this is borne out by my own experience as well- that there is some difference between the sound of flutes made of different materials, but that this is minor, especially between materials of similar specific gravity. Thus, there's a pretty big difference between wood and silver, not so much between nickel and silver, and a fair amount between gold and silver. But none of these differences are dramatic.
www.researchgate.net/publication/265017541_Gold_vs_Silver_Does_material_influence_the_sound_of_flutes
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