Buncha flutes on eBay

Irish Flute
1

Just a heads-up – there’s a whooole bunch of decent flutes on eBay right now. (And some indecent ones, but they’re always there.) I’m not selling any of them. :slight_smile:

Searching for “Irish Flute”, I found:

Healy
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=878621528

Ormiston
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=879231406

Burns (that you, Eldarion?)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=879523222

Murray
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=880003982

Cheers,

-Rich

2

funny that we don’t see Olwell, McGee, Grinter, Byrne, Cotter, etc…
hmmm
well, not that often anyway

3

There is another flute on eBay Germany. I contacted the seller, he says he gets it from OReillies, Florida. The flute looks nice but I don't know whether OReillies is the maker or a reseller. The current price is attractive, though.

Any information would be appreciated.

[ This Message was edited by: ChrisB on 2002-06-05 05:53 ]

4

On 2002-06-05 05:47, ChrisB wrote:
There is another > flute on eBay Germany> . I contacted the seller, he says he gets it from OReillies, Florida. The flute looks nice but I don't know whether OReillies is the maker or a reseller. The current price is attractive, though.

Any information would be appreciated.

There is a similar (identical?) flute on eBay US at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=881041826
These are Pakastani made flutes with a reputation for very bad playability and intonation. They are cheap for flutes, but to quote another flute player, “Expensive for firewood”.

5

On 2002-06-05 11:40, DanD wrote:
These are Pakastani made flutes with a reputation for very bad playability and intonation.

:astonished: Dan, thanks for saving my money!

6

I know a guy who wants to put his Grinter low Bb on ebay! Rediculous. Just send it over to China now, man, so I can compare to my Olwell low Bb…and then I’ll never suffer from whether or not I have the freaking coolest flute d’amour on the planet.

(and then I can send one of them to Migoya).

7

Do the Sam Murray headjoints really bend like that? It looks like the flute is warped both in the case-shot and the picture of the flute assembled.

I’ve just never seen a Murray up close, and that’s weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeird.

(See the link above to the Ebay page for the Murray flute).

Oh, my gosh. Just realized that “Ebay” is Pig Latin for “Be.” Hmm. Existentialist?

Stuart

8

On 2002-06-04 13:00, rich wrote:
Burns (that you, Eldarion?)

Good guess Rich! The account is my friend’s though.

9

Do the Sam Murray headjoints really bend like that? It looks like the flute is warped both in the case-shot and the picture of the flute assembled.

I wondered about this as well and found these amusing post’s on ITRAD I thought I would share with you.

Hi there. New to the list. I examined the picture on EBAY and I would not term that a “banana warp”. First, it sounds disgusting. Second, a slight warp of the head joint can sometimes improve the sound of the flute. I know many players who try to “warp” the head joint by applying pressure at polar ends of the headpiece over a steaming pot of parsnips or tubers. Third, the picture is not necessarily accurate (as I think we can all understand, heh
heh:))

My Sam Murray flute is working out great!! And it may possess what you have so casually termed a “banana warp.”

If you choose to purchase it, I would be really really really really really interested in hearing what you think of it after you have played it (.WAV Files?). I love mine.

Enda



Welcome to the list Enda

"Hi there. New to the list. I examined the picture on EBAY and I would not term that a “banana warp”. First, it sounds disgusting. Second, a slight warp of the head joint can sometimes improve the sound of the flute. " Enda O’Doulle.

I think Sam Murray makes fine instruments, but I wouldn’t want one that is warped as I don’t think it looks nice. I like the look of straight flutes that’s all. I’d say that a flute that is only a few years old that has started to warp is often a sign that the maker has used timber that hasn’t been cured enough, or that the maker has unknowingly purchased, and used timber that is too fresh. It could also be that the finished flute has been stored for long periods incorrectly, prehaps in very humid conditions, or on a shelf over a radiator, in the oven maybe, people are strange. I don’t like the look of the banana warp of the Murray flute on ebay, even if others may find it appealing. I also fail to understand how a slight head joint warp could improve the sound of a flute? > http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=880003982

" I know many players who try to “warp” the head joint by applying pressure at polar ends of the headpiece over a steaming pot of parsnips or tubers" Enda O’Doulle.

This sounds like rubbish, although funny. Do you seriously mean there are flute players all over Ireland standing at their cookers with their newly accquired Rudall & Rose, Grinter, Murray, Williams or Wilkes flutes, sweating, and straining, prehaps even grunting, in an effort to bend their head joints over steaming pots of parsnips, in order to make them sound even better. Your pulling my leg I believe, shame on you.

I’m glad you’re pleased with your own Murray flute. I played one some time ago when I was a complete beginner. Couldn’t do it justice though with my weedy embouchure. I’ve heard them played live by good flute players and I think they are up there with the best. I’m pleased with my own Dave Williams which I’m still growing into, and I’ve still so much to learn about playing the flute. It’s great craic though isn’t it. I’ll pass on the curved Murray on ebay, let it go to some fruit and nut case, but I wouldn’t mind a straight one. Will you be at Willie Week Enda?

Thomas Johnson

10

You know, if you carefully at that ebay photo you’ll see that it’s not just the Headjoint that looks warped - the edges of the open case, both top and bottom on the left side, are bugling quite a bit. So, it’s the photo that’s distorted, not the flute. Looks like the buyer got a pretty good deal on a keyed flute then, eh?

Loren

11

Actually, It looks like it’s the tuning slide that’s bent. I don’t think it’s the photo. I looks like someone used it as a nightstick.

12

On 2002-06-07 11:23, Eldarion wrote:

On 2002-06-04 13:00, rich wrote:
Burns (that you, Eldarion?)

Good guess Rich! The account is my friend’s though.

Why so inexpensive compared to the prices on his website? (Lest I start a bidding war…currently I’m a high bidder on it) I’d really like to get this for my g/f…especially since she has smaller hands and this is reputed to be “smallfolk” friendly..

Aodhan

13

I don’t think it’s warped at all… I think there’s a bit of lens warp and a lot of optical illusion because of the grain of the wood. I could be wrong, but the fact that the longer a look at it the more warped it gets until it looks like a candy-cane tends to indicate that either I’m cracking up (which is possible, maybe even likely) or that there’s an optical illusion at work here, and the grain is at angle to the shaft of the flute, which might in itself be a negative, but not the same as warping.

We could tell a bit more by filling the outlines of the flute with neutral-gray, except that unless you do a lot of art, a pure silhoutte of an object in photographic perspective is difficult to interpret…

–Chris

14

I think it’s warped. look at both pictures.
the one where the headjoint section is in the case could just be an illusion, but in the other photo, the lines of the case appear straight and the flute looks really bent at the tuning slide. Plus, it’s bent up in one and down in the other, 'cause the headjoint is pointing in opposite directions.
jb

15

The woodgrain is also angled in different directions, and with a nice dark stripe to draw the eye. I’m not saying it’s not bent, but I pulled it into an editor, and there’s a lot of confusion around the border of the flute against the wood table where pixel adjusting has done some strange stuff (the grain of the table ‘intrudes’ into where it looks like there’s flute edge since the overall color changes… or is it shadow…?)

Also, in the assembled picture the flash more or less centered, creating an arc of light across the body of the flute, but the flute is not straight, the foot angles upward and the mouth downward across the length of the photograph (by maybe 5-10 pixels, I didn’t measure all that carefully.)

The shadows and wood grain and flash-reflection create dramatic effects, but the actual flute shape is not particularly apparent, especially when the ‘edge’ of the flute has a 2/3/4 pixel boundary that is undefinable.

Let this be a lesson to people planning to sell flutes… get good lighting that isn’t from flash, and a neutral background to place your flute on (like a solid-color towel or bedsheet, I’m sure you have something in your house that’ll do!)

The further away your light source is, the less likely it is to create false angles from the arcing effects.

So, if this guy was, say, 3 or 4 feet from the flute, I’d say it’s dead straight. If he was twenty feet away, I’d say it’s severely bent… the in-case photograph implies to me that he was standing too close to the flute.

(Another point… get some distance and use some zoom… err, optical zoom if you have it, not digital… and your image doesn’t have to fill the screen, you’re not going to post a 1280x1024 anyway, and cropping a small flute out of a big image is more accurate than reducing a big image to a small image…)

So, I think a) it’s not a resolvable issue from what we can see, but that b) my gut says, this is a good flute and a bad photographer. Of course, it’s already sold… did it sell to a forum member? We can find out soon, maybe with better photos…

–Chris

16

I agree with Chris, looks like optical distortion of one sort or another, looks to me like a wide angle lens used too close to the subject and perhaps shot slightly from the left.

At any rate; I’ve sold to the the high bidder before and have a hard time believing he wouldn’t have asked about this issue before hand. I’m also reasonably sure he wouldn’t have knowingly purchased a bannana shaped flute =;^) In an effort to put this to bed, I dropped him a note asking about the flute earlier today and I’ll post if i hear from him.

Loren

17

I may just possibly be terminally incompetent at browsing the web… I downloaded the small, not the large, version of the flute image. I’m going to take another look while we wait for clarifications from the buyer, but right now it’s time to get off the web and go home from work… err… that sounds bad doesn’t it? :wink:

–Chris

18

Guess this will remain a mystery: The high bidder didn’t meet the reserve, so he never saw the flute in person.

Add this one to the x-files…

Loren

19

On 2002-06-12 13:00, Aodhan wrote:

Why so inexpensive compared to the prices on his website? (Lest I start a bidding war…currently I’m a high bidder on it) I’d really like to get this for my g/f…especially since she has smaller hands and this is reputed to be “smallfolk” friendly..

Aodhan

Hey Aodhan, the price of the flute was less because the keyless flutes Burns normally sells have lined heads. This is an unlined flute, that is supposed to be one of his older models. Hope that helps!

20

Eldarion-

Yeah, that helps a lot! :wink: But, I’m outbid at the moment, going to wait and see what happens the last couple hours or so.

Aodhan