It's very rarely that we are asked to make a Flûte à Biberon, but here are the completed 4' pipes for a British organ builder.
The stop is said to date from the 1700s, though apparently it was never used by the major builders of the time. Biberon translates as 'baby's bottle'.
The 4' stop in spotted metal has the sound of a chimney flute, though the octave harmonic is said to be more pronounced. The Compass is F6 to C61 with tapered open pipes from f# 43.
We made samples of the pipes a few years ago to determine lengths. They were tuned using big lead ears, but this particular one has solid ears and is tuned with a sleeve.
Chris Shire says: 'We've not made one in the 10 years that I have been here, so it's been an interesting project.'
Those pipes look fantastic.