… my strong word in Sam Murray’s favour for helping me out quickly, conveniently and helpfully this week.
Finding I’m travelling with no spare pads/shellac, worn out bits falling to pieces a week before Milltown (I know, lack of foresight on my part!) and no-one local to assist. Speculative email to Sam, reply within three hours, mobile phone number, pop into the workshop anytime and we’ll sort you out, just call me and let me know when you’re coming, etc. Top service
I met Sam in a pub, of all places, while in Galway. I found him to be very interesting and rather modest. It is sad to hear not everyone gets on with him but I found Sam to be quite likeable and had a great conversation with him about old cameras and flutes.
Kurt
Another positive word:
When I was in Galway this April, I asked Sam to check out my flute. He made some nice and fast repairs. I got emails back quickly and he even met me on a holiday. Thanks Sam!
I think this thread supports a point we all too often forget: flutemakers have lives, too. Just because they’re (we hope!) doing something they love doesn’t mean they don’t have other stuff they like to do, too. And it seems the instrument makers I’ve talked to have more than a few drop-ins, and even houseguests, on a fairly regular basis. I’ll never forget the time we met a kid staying in the Vermont hotel room next to ours who’d flown in specifically to drop in on Benedict Kohler; didn’t even know exactly where he lived but he was going to find him if it killed him – and that’s not the only one of those stories out there!
(I would be waving my .410 around in no time if people started doing that to me when I was trying to work.)
So please keep this in mind when you’ve ordered a new instrument. There could be a WHOLE lot of reasons why your flute isn’t done by the originally estimated date. The typical instrument maker’s shop consists of one or two people, doing a whole lot of things, for a whole lot of people – and someday you might be the beneficiary of them taking the time from someone else’s project to help you.
Thanks for this thread! Sam’s been hugely helpful to me, even calling from Belfast on his own dime with advice. Good things come to those who are at least willing to wait if necessary.
I taught meself in '72 on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Viet Nam w/ 5,000 other guys
