So I tried hardening the bore of this “Rainbow” poplar F#m flute, without a ton of success. In addition to having large cellular voids like cedar, which dampen the ringing voice typical of a hardwood, the material is fuzzy as well. Fuzzy does not help with clarity. Again, This wood doesn’t look like any rainbow I’ve seen on this planet, and is just an effort to glamorize a material best known for manufacturing cardboard boxes. Despite the stark contrast in color between the top and bottom half of this flute, they both came from the same mineralized slab of wood.
Remaining ingredients include CA buckeye burl, SE Asian amboyna burl, Hawaiian koa, box elder burl, and abalone. Inlay includes, Brazilian azotic topaz, hematite, Mexican crazy lace agate, Mexican boulder opal, turquoise, and amber.
And yep, the fetish is another bird. In this case, the Archaeopteryx, which most of you know to be a 150 million year old Jurassic parrot, or sparrow according to the internet. Lastly, the serpent motif at the foot, or far end, is a tuning hole into the bore, cut to bring the instrument into a fundamental of F#m. Play nice, and stay safe.