it was in response to Cork
I found the “quality control” odd
This same flute is also discussed on Terry’s website:
http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/unusual.htm
A slightly newer, similar model of flute by Siour-Chapelain was sold on eBay a while ago as well. Except for Clinton’s flute, most of the samples I’ve come across are French. One antique flute dealer I spoke with said that flutes like this will come up in French auctions from time to time and sell for around $600-800.
I’d be interested in playing one to be sure!
Quality control exists. For instance, check out the low cost, conical bore Clarke whistles, complete with wood fipple. I doubt its tapered body was made by an elf at a workbench, as it has a manufactured look to it, frankly, and, somehow, apparently Clarke has managed to stay in business for a long time.
That, however, is the engineer in me speaking.
The artist interprets quality control to be a myth.
Sorry, the French flute you mention is a Boehm style flute, it is cylindrical not conical.
Yes, right you are Jon, silly me not to spot that - though I’ll plead a degree of confusion with the other current thread about Boehm bore simple system flutes… In other respects, though, the similarities are striking and the differences interesting…e.g. the preservation (as one might expect) of distinctive national style elements.
“Quality control exists. For instance, check out the low cost, conical bore Clarke whistles, complete with wood fipple. I doubt its tapered body was made by an elf at a workbench,”
Obvlously, Irish whistles are made by leprachauns, even those made in the UK, but otherwise your point escapes me.
Well, without some form of quality control, perhaps Clarke, or most any manufacturer, could have gone, or could go, out of business.
Similarly, a modern, and perhaps simplified, version of the flute for India could be attractive, but only if the quality were then good enough.
[quote="Gostrangely,"Obviously, Irish whistles are made by leprachauns, even those made in the UK, but otherwise your point escapes me.[/quote]
Isn’t it just the most delicious irony that the “original” of that most quintessential of Oirish thingummies, the tin/penny whistle, at least as a commercial, regular production model, was English??? (Yes, I know old pedlar Clarke was just semi-mass producing a version of a much, much older, usually individually and crudely handmade thing.) BTW, dare I admit I’m a Clarkes denier/detester? Perhaps the boggarts and peskies and other English equivalents of leprechauns are responsible for the nasty breathy sound, the soggy wooden fipple, the dangerous metal corners that snag your lips if you’re not careful and the total lack of tunability. At least with a Generation (and its Irish copies) you can melt the glue and move the head!
Are there really that many makers (happily, I should add) producing keyed delrin flutes? The only two that I’m aware of advertising this are M&E and Terry McGee. Perhaps that’s all the current market requires.
Desi Seery is another for the list.
With the conical bored flute for India in mind, the conical bored Clarke whistle just came to mind, intended as an example of manufacturing, but not as an endorsement, please.
I have two Clarke whistles, C and D, and all but never play them, for reasons similar to yours.
Edit: In fairness to Clarke, a Clarke whistle can be purchased at a price near pocket money. It does play, although it may be only six holes from kazoo class, but given an appropriate setting, as solo performance with or without percussion accompanyment, a Clarke whistle indeed could be musical. Clarke whistles are also a piece of history, long pre-dating any plastic, and offer a player some insight on a standard of a much earlier era, something of a living antique. Although I rarely play my own, they are not for sale, thank you.
Brendan Breathnach makes the somewhat bitchy claim (in The Dance Music of Ireland, IIRC) that the anglo concertina was the only instrument ever invented by an englishman.
Yes, expensive tooling would be called for, and even before that, some serious effort (!) would need to be put into modeling such a flute, one having a modern, A = 440, tuning, with any keywork as optional.
So, yes, there are real start up costs, but if a market for such a flute were apparent, then perhaps those costs could be recovered, and just maybe then some.
BTW, let me cross reference this thread with another, related thread:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=51852&sid=549d3864053ddffaae4291c15646bd91