Overview

The .997 sterling silver keys are mounted on pure silver hinge tubes. The 1607 is a delight to play and looks amazing!

Material Composition

Sterling silver lip plate and riser, Britannia silver seamed headjoint, body and footjoint, silver mechanism - soldered tone holes

A traditionally created silver alloy composed of 95.8% silver, also dubbed the Britannia Silver for its historic existence in British coinage. This alloy has an increased density and is considerably softer than Sterling Silver. This allows the instruments to make darker and richer tonal color without the use of greater wall thickness.

The Altus seamed tube is made from a flat piece of metal that is rolled, hand planished and then seamed. It is truly the only handmade flute tube available in modern production.

The process to create the sintered 99.7% silver key pipes is unique to Altus. Powdered silver metal is compacted at a high temperature to fuse particles together directly into a rigid tube, strengthening our key pipe structure and increasing playability.

The tone hole chimneys are formed separately and then soldered to the flute joint. This process allows for a consistent wall thickness around the holes and thus enables an even better resonance and timbre.

Altus Scale

Altus flute maker Shuichi Tanaka and renowned British flutist William Bennett shared an admiration for Albert Cooper’s vision of updating and modernizing the traditional flute scale. They created the Altus Scale to provide effortless intonation, impeccably tuned harmonics, and exceptionally balanced registers, setting a new standard for flute design. This monumental achievement is one of the hallmarks of the great Altus flute making tradition.