CHRIS ABELL:     The Chiff & Fipple Interview

Chris Abell lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his partner, flutist Kate Steinbeck, and their two-and-a-half year old son, Galen.  (Happy update, 2005:  Two children,  Galen, 8, and Lucy, 5). His shop is located in a 90+-year-old former weaving factory where he makes Boehm-system flutes from African Blackwood and Sterling Silver.  

Happily for us, Chris also makes whistles, and they are among the most highly regarded on the planet. As is true of his flutes, Chris favors African Blackwood (grenadilla) with sterling silver tuning slides and fittings for the whistles. He will also make whistles out of other woods. He makes Delrin whistles (a matte black plastic used by his whistle-making colleagues Copeland and O'Riordan) on request.

 

I own Abell whistles in the key of A, D, C, and F.  They're phenomenal.

  

Dale: Tell us a little about your background: Where you grew up, what kind of education you have, what kind of day jobs you've had....

Chris Abell: I was born in New Haven, CT in September 1951 and moved to Asheville, North Carolina in 1953. My father was the headmaster of Asheville Country Day School from 1953 until 1975 and I attended that school until I graduated in 1970. I then attended St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, North Carolina for two years, majoring in Religion and Philosophy. I left without graduating feeling the need to study under other conditions other than traditional classroom settings.

I have worked as a general laborer on farms, in construction, and in factories; landscaped, taught wilderness skills, been a soccer coach, and a baker. In 1981 I was offered a job learning how to make metal flutes in the Asheville area on a small project that eventually was abandoned. However, I took one of the instruments I had helped to make to Boston where the finest flutes in the world have been manufactured for a number of decades. I was offered a job with one of the most prestigious firms, Brannen Brothers Flutemakers, Inc. and moved to Boston to work for

The instruments are my own design based primarily on filling the requirements of perfect intonation, simple, exquisite design and easy, affordable manufacture.

Chris Abell

 

them. I worked in their shop for three years and at that point felt that I could do better work in my own space. I set up my own shop in Concord, MA and continued to sub-contract flute work from Brannen Brothers. while I began projects of my own. I began producing whistles during this time using materials readily available through the flute company. I remained in the Boston area making flutes for Brannen Brothers and working on my own projects until 1995 when I moved back to Asheville and have been here since. I have been a full time flute and whistle maker since 1981.

I am primarily a flute-maker and also have my whistles as part of my product line. Both instruments are my own design based primarily on filling the requirements of perfect intonation, simple, exquisite design and easy, affordable manufacture. The flutes I make are professional modern Boehm-system wooden flutes for orchestral players and recording artists. I sell them world-wide

 Chris Abell photo courtesy of Timmy Abell

Dale: How did you get interested in making whistles? Whose work did you use as a model to study the instruments?

Chris: I had been playing whistle since about 1974 and couldn't find any to suit my playing style or artistic taste. While working at Brannen Brothers in 1985, I decided to make one from the Blackwood and sterling silver tubing available in the shop. I used the Susato D whistle as a starting point for scale and mouthpiece design. Within a week of finishing my first whistle, I had orders for ten and I haven't stopped making them except for a sabbatical for a year to have a child with my partner, Kate in 1996. (Note from Dale: This was probably the source of the "Chris Abell has retired" rumor that floated around the Internet a couple of years ago).

Black & white photo of Abell whistle

The Susato whistles had the best tone and scale of any on the market at the time I started making whistles. My complaints with them at the time were the choice of materials and the lack of tunability. Mr. Kelischek's instruments were bold, nicely made, exceptionally in tune and very affordable. I decided to open the market a bit and offer a high-end instrument made with exquisite materials, a beautiful design, good scale, tunable, and interchangable bodies in different keys.

Dale. Do you know how many whistles you have made?

Chris: Since my first whistle made in 1985, I have numbered every instrument with its own serial number. I am now within a few whistles of #700, #685 to be exact. I also have record of the original buyers of every instrument.

Dale:. To my knowledge, you sell your own work and no one else distributes your instruments. Why is that?

Chris: I prefer to make my whistles in small batches for durability and consistency. I am able to keep my prices reasonable and still afford to produce the instruments at a regular pace. Most importantly, I am able to keep up with the customers should any problems or questions arise. I have a 15-day trial period after purchase with full refund as long as the whistle is in perfect, new condition. The customer can try the whistle in their own setting to see if it really what they want. I could not have this same rapport through dealers.

A set of Chris Abell whistles, C, D, Eb, in Delrin. Thanks to David Migoya of www.fyfer-restorations.com for use of photo.

Dale:. What's your waiting list like these days?

Chris:

UPDATE 2006:  I recently heard from Chris who says the current waiting list for whistles is five or six months and flutes is about a year. He recommends that interested parties email him about wait times at mail@abellflute.com.

Dale: I've seen a picture of a Chris Abell flute and it is something to behold. Could you talk a little about different choices of materials?

Chris: I use two basic materials for my whistles: African Blackwood (Dahlbergia Melanoxylon - in the Rosewood family) and Delrin, a black plastic manufactured by DuPont which has similar characteristics to the Blackwood in machinability and tone produced but is impervious to weather changes. I prefer the Blackwood overall in looks and tone, but the Delrin is very close. The price is the same for either material. I use only Sterling silver for my fittings.

Dale: Low whistles have been booming in the last few years. But, you have chosen not to make them. Why not?

Chris: I have had a lot of inquiries for Low D whistles and my usual answer is
that I already make one, but it has keys all over it (the Boehm system
flute). The acoustical problems in producing a Low D in the style of
whistle that I make - cylindrical bore with relatively correct bore to
length ratio, can only be corrected with some type of keywork. The
tonehole spacing and size are prohibitive for correct intonation with
normal hands and impossible with small hands (the toneholes are too far
apart and too large to cover with the fingers). There is some leeway in
the spacing and size of the toneholes and in the bore to length ratio,
but the more one moves from the ideal, the more the instrument suffers.
My solution would be to add keywork, but I'm not inclined to begin the
research and development at this time.

Dale: Without revealing any trade secrets, could you talk to us a little about HOW you work? Do you bring a batch of whistles through a process together? Any thing you can tell us about the day-to-day work would be interesting to our readers.

Chris: First of all, my philosophy is that there really are no trade secrets.
Once someone has an instrument of mine, they have all my "secrets" in
their hand. I will usually answer any questions concerning dimensions and
methods of manufacture to anyone interested. If someone wants to make
exact copies of my instruments and try to undersell me in the
marketplace, I wish them all the best; because it isn't only the
instrument that is of concern. The intentions and integrity of the maker
are of equal importance to the finished product in building a trusting
customer base that will last over time. If someone, on the other hand,
uses my instruments as a springboard for an original and unique
improvement, I am honored to have been a stepping stone in the evolution
of whistle-making. George Kelischek in the whistles and Bickford Brannen
in the flutes were the stepping stones for me and I continue to be
thankful for their influence on my instruments. I believe that I have
added a small dimension to the flute and whistle worlds through my work,
but it hasn't been solely my own work and I acknowledge that fact every
day.

All the above having been said, I would like to tell you a bit of my
method in instrument-making. My main concern in making my instruments is
to be consistent at the standard I have set. By this I mean that any
whistle purchased would be indicative of my work. I think that this
consistency gives actual and potential customers a better platform from
which to make a decision about a high-end instrument purchase. Once the
initial design has been finalized, I gather the necessary supplies for
the manufacture (the Sterling tubing and wood and epoxy and Delrin) and I
make a few to sufficiently solidify the manufacturing technique. There is
a large outlay of money and time for each new product in materials and
tooling and flow. Once the new instrument can be made consistently, it is
then simply a matter of doing it. The interesting time of research and
development is over and the instruments now have to be made. So it is
important to have this last step of the process of development include
keeping the daily production process simple and interesting. (We use an
eclectic mixture of Traditional, Jazz and Classical music over a wonderful
sound system to help in keeping the boredom of production low). I have
one employee, Jeff Thomas, who has worked with me for a few years
learning the wood turning and parts making and assembly process which
allows me to work on the flutes simultaneously as the whistle batch is
coming up. Lately, we have been bringing up whistles in batches of about
20 at a time. We turn and bore the wood, mount the silver fittings
outside and inside, cut the toneholes, and do the finish work on the
mouthpiece and toneholes by hand. All the manufacturing of parts is done
on metal-working equipment - lathes, milling machine, arbor press, micro
motor. We can hold tighter tolerances on this equipment which helps with
consistency. One whistle can be made in about 5 hours - we make 20 in
about 80 hours. The whistles sit at each stage of production to settle
before moving on to the next stage so we have quite a few instruments at
various stages at once. Aside from the normal production time in each
instrument, there is time spent maintaining tools, ordering supplies,
calling customers, and bookkeeping to fill the day. Actual production of
instruments comprises about 80% of the time.

Dale: Are you interested in making whistles which sound like flutes--or do you go a more distinctive tone?

 Chris: I did not have a particular "sound" I wanted to emulate when I started
making whistles. Rather, I wanted to have an instrument that would
produce a tone that is clean, clear, and powerful through the two-plus octave
range of the whistle. I did not want to approach the sound of the
recorder even though I was making a wooden instrument nor did I want to
be too close to the sound of the traditional "tin whistle". I now have
made enough whistles that I am satisfied with the overall tone being
distinctive - that of a nice, well-made wooden whistle.

 

Chris Abell's can be reached at Abell Flute Company 111 Grovewood Road Asheville, NC 28804

828 254-1004

email: abellflute@juno.com  There is now a lovely Abell website at http://www.abellflute.com/

 

Dale Wisely is the Undisputed King of Internet Tinwhistle Journalism and Commentary. His website, Chiff & Fipple: The PostStructural Tinwhistle Internet Experience (www.chiffandfipple.com) is the most-visited tinwhistle website.

NOTE: This interview is published for the interest of tinwhistle enthusiasts. It is not an advertisement. No exchange of money or goods occurred between Dale and Chris and no agreement was made in advance about the content of the interview.