I am looking for a G key flute with a right pinky hole for an extra low F#.
(7 holes XXX XXXx for F# and G from XXX XXXo).
Preferably with tuning slide, or at least two piece.
(I have composed a Mixolydian piece in D
which calls for this low F#)
I am not into crystal or metal at all.
Any comments or advice.
I promise not to tease respondents too much.
Seriously, thanks in anticipation. 
You might email Doug Tipple and ask if he could make you one. I believe he makes G flutes and might be able to ad the F# hole to one for you.
Doug’s email is SPAMlife2all @ earthlink.netSPAM
(remove the SPAMs), or check his eBay auctions.
-Brett
Hmmm…
What’s with the SPAMmy thingy email address?
Pretty freaky …
I just added the “SPAM” on in an attempt to fool SPAM bots. You should remove them and you’ll get the correct email address for Doug.
-Brett
(Offensive paragraph removed)
There are programs that folks use to search the internet for anything that looks like an email address, believe it or not, and what Brett’s doing is about all we can do to prevent an email address from being recognized as such.
Actually, the best thing would probably be to make a .jpg or .gif which contains your email address (since it’s harder to scan a graphic than inline text).
But I am also relatively sure Brett could speak for himself; I’m just chatty this morning.
Stuart
[defensive post removed]
Oh, gosh, wow.
OK, I apologize then.
Yeesh.
Stuart
(Maybe you should edit your quote of the post to reflect his editing, so that spambots can’t take the address from what you quoted?)
[repartee removed in good faith]
OK, I actually have something on-topic to say, which I was about to post.
However, I must also comment on my comment before, and your reading of it. You have also decided that my post was some kind of horrendous accusation. It wasn’t. Obviously I didn’t see that Brett had edited his post, so I assumed you’d edited yours. Did it sound like I was saying, “Come, all ye Chiffers, and witness the evil of TALASIGA!” No, I was merely pointing it out. It’s a little insane, in my opinion, that you would refuse to edit your post because the “edit trail” would be destroyed? Your fear of imputation outweighs the potential threat to the integrity of Doug Tipple’s email address . . . hmm. It seems ridiculous because I meant, in no way, to accuse you of wrongdoing. I had assumed an act of editing to correct the appearance of the email address, which looks wrong with spaces, and was just trying to point out that the spaces actually make it safer. So, again, I’m sorry, but wow, don’t be so paranoid.
Vis-Ă -vis your topic:
You would probably be quite unhappy with the performance of a G flute with a low F#. In order to provide you with that note, you would in fact need an F# flute body with holes drilled to make it a G. In order to be playable by the pinky, the low F# note (unless you use a key) would be a tiny little thing right below the bottom G hole. The bottom G would then be relatively UNvented, and quite weak.
Cf, the appearance of a D flute with a C foot. The holes are way the heck down the flute, and to get the D vented properly, the C# hole is unmanageably far from the D to be reached by an unaided finger.
So . . . hmm. It’s an interesting problem, the solution of which might actually call for a flute long enough for Fnatural, with a key to close the (distant) F# hole, and a vent for the low F (a hole).
Sorry to cause so much trouble on this thread, but I’m still reeling at the thought that I was being accusatory. Or, that I was accusing anyone of a crime. I guess my post was, by definition, accusatory.
I’ll go back and get rid of it, how’s that? Then you can edit and it won’t look like you’re being maligned.
Stuart
I don’t know about all this, Stuart although I understand your point.
There are US made professional bansuris
with a C nat at XXX OOOo and F# at XXX XXXx
bUT they dont have a tuning slide which is what I want.
Also I have a an A fifey thing with a keyless pinkie low G#, no probs.
Please consider.
Ooops. Sorry if I caused any confusion…I’m not sure what the posts were, they were edited out before I read them. I did go back and put spaces in the email address I posted. I realized that someone might just click on the email to send a message and thought I’d better add the spaces to make sure they had to type the email in by hand, and be more likely to remove the SPAM’s.
There are a few whistle models out there with 7th holes for the pinky. Is there a technical reason why this works on whistles but wouldn’t on flute?
-Brett
I guess that could be, Talasiga, with smaller instruments.
The bansuri you mention is, then, in fact an F# instrument, but perhaps the size of the bore and configuration of the holes allows for a good G.
My only point (if I indeed have a point) is that for a pinky F#, the instrument has to be longer than a G instrument, and the bell-tone drops to F#. That would tend to make the low G weakER than you’d expect on a regular cylindrical (or conical) flute, since the G would be so weakly vented.
You know how some makers make a “short” D foot, with no holes and no potential for keywork? They do that to strengthen the bottom end of the flute, including the low D and E. The added length required to give you a C or C# on a standard-pitch flute tends to weaken the D (and the E a little). I was just theorizing that it would REALLY wreak havoc with the low end to extend the flute a enough to play the bottom-end 7th.
I haven’t ever played a bansuri so I don’t know the “feel” of the scale.
Stuart
No you’re confusing yourself here.
Its a G key instrument with a pinkie for the low F#.
The scale is G A B C D E F# G+
whether its a bansuri or any other traditional six hole flute.
It doesn’t become an F# flute because of the pinkie.
The pinkie just allows one to do a 7th (ie the F#) in the G key scale
as a note below the bottom G.
That’s all.
Also the G flute is not very long, as you must already know.
Not at all like the Irish D concert flute.
No, that’s not right. Here’s where you’re missing my point.
Think about it. If you have a G flute, like a regular old G bamboo flute, with six holes, how do you play low G? All fingers down, all six holes covered. Then the bell note of the instrument is G. There’s absolutely no way to make that flute play BELOW the low G (aside from closing off the end) by adding holes.
Do you see what I mean?
There’s just not a way to extend the range of a flute DOWNward without increasing its length. If you want to have a flute that will allow you to play a leading low F#, meaning the seventh in front of the beginning of the bottom octave, you must have a flute that plays low F# with all the fingers down.
This will be a stick of bamboo which, when the holes are all covered, plays F#. So, it’s actually a flute that wants to be in F#.
This changes, to an extent, the relationship between the holes, since you’re using a longer instrument. And, I argue, will weaken the low end of the scale, since in order to be playable, the low F# hole will be a little bitty thing just below the G hole (XXX XXXo).
That’s the whole point of my argument: what you’re asking is that a piece of bamboo long enough to be an F# flute be drilled with holes to make it play in G. Which is perfectly do-able, but might tend to weaken the low G and A because they won’t be vented all that well (since the F# hole is going to be tiny to be close enough to be playable).
Does that make sense? I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t think you’re thinking it through. There’s no way to add holes to an instrument to get it to play below the bell note; you must add length.
Stuart
Yeah, I suppose it is possible to choke the end of the flute also, but that’s not really workable for Talasiga’s problem.
It doesn’t matter about a marginal change in length.
As long as I have a wooden or bamboo flute with
G A B C D E F# G+ etc with a pinkie
for an F# below the lowest G.
That such a pinkie might “tend to weaken the low G and A”
is known to me BUT it is not germaine.
US bansuri makers already make concert standard bansuris
with such a pinkie quite successfully but not with tuning slide.
Is there someone who does this in wood or bamboo
and with tuning slide?
This is my question.
Thanks.
I am sorry Glauber
but I could not find any flutes in this link.
Skip Healy makes blackwood G flutes with
a tuning slide; he makes some of these
with chromatic fingering and also does
custom work by request. You might
check the site. Best
Let me add there is the additional
possibility of finding out who
makes G flutes with tuning
slides and contacting the
makers about your interest.
Bleazey does, I’ve mentioned
Healey, probably there are
others. Ralph Sweet might be
willing to try it for you–
I think they do experiments.
His G has no tuning slide,
yet…Hope this helps.
Thanks Jim
but I am only interested in any maker who already does it.
If I need to go down a custom made or experimental road
there are a bevy of makers in Oz that I can approach.
BTW, incidentally (and all that)
Isn’t your G Sweetheart in two pieces?
Can’t you tune it down somewhat by lengthening it?