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Used Avanti 2000 Flute – with C# Trill

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Description

Used Avanti 2000 Series Flute with C# Trill
Rare Model with Pointed Arms! – Designed by Bick Brannen

Avanti flutes were made designed by master flute maker, Bickford (Bick) Brannen. Bick is known as one of the world’s finest flute makers for the handmade flutes that he pioneered at Brannen Brothers Flutes. The Avanti flute project was a way that Bick felt that he could give back to the American flute industry; an industry that he cherished. So he chose to work with Conn-Selmer, the current owner and manufacturer of Armstrong flutes as he worked at Armstrong earlier in his career. The Avanti 2000 was the pinnacle of the line as this was the Solid Silver version. This was one of our favorite flutes ever made… but sadly, due to many various reasons, Conn-Selmer has since discontinued the Avanti flutes.

This Unique Used Avanti 2000 Flute Available for Sale:
This particular used Avanti 2000 flute is a unique specimen. What is unique is that this is this flute possesses pointed key arms – a feature that was NOT part of the production of the Avanti 2000. This feature adds to the cost of the manufacturing of the flute but yields little more than a cosmetic benefit over traditional “Y-Arm” construction. The concept of Pointed key arms on the Avanti flute was mainly discussed for a proposed 3rd model that would also feature Solid Silver Keys – a model that sadly never made it to production.

How do we know this? Dave and Chuck Kessler were present in the early design meetings for the Avanti flute project.

Still, this particular Avanti 2000 is configured in an amazing set of options that also features the rare occurrence of these pointed arms. This particular flute was used solely as a backup flute for a player to her higher-end professional Powell flute. This flute is in amazing condition and has the following features on it:

2000 Series – Solid Silver Headjoint & Body
Solid Silver Headjoint Receiver
Solid Silver Footjoint Receiver
Gold Springs
Plated Keys & Mechanism
French Style Pointed Key Arms
Open Hole
Low B
Off-Set G
Split E Mechanism
C# Trill
Straubinger pads (Pheonix Series with a few true Straubinger pads)

Click here to read Dave Kessler’s blog post about these flutes.

Pad History on the Avanti
A pad can make huge impact on the flute’s tonal performance, not just the functionality of the flute. For this reason, when the Avanti flutes were released, they came with a revolutionary new pad from professional flute & pad maker, David Straubinger. The new Straubinger “Phoenix” pad was designed to bridge the gap between the performance of the highest end pro pads and the durability of the traditional felt pads.

While the Phoenix pad was an amazing pad, it still required a more skilled flute technician in order to properly adjust and regulate. This created a problem as the heavy majority of flute technicians across the country are simply not trained to work on this level of refinement. As a result, this lead to stores handling the flute and not being able to adjust and regulate it which then hindered the player’s ability to even properly test the flute’s full performance – thus hindering sales.

Lucien Deluxe
Eventually, Conn-Selmer moved the Avanti flute over to the Lucien Deluxe pad; the industry’s highest caliber felt pad. This was done to try and help the issue mentioned above, but it did degrade a little from the flute’s performance. Unfortunately, this change was likely done a little too late as the flute was discontinued within a year of the switch.

Please note – this Used Avanti 2000 flute available for sale has primarily Pheonix series pads but also has had a few Straubinger pads installed by another technician at some point in its life.