I don’t know of any other much-played instruments that hadn;t been “luxury-updated” until the late 20th century. As I said before, we are lucky consumers. $100 for such musical joy? I think its more than that to re-hair a bow. I used to sell fine classical guitars, which were cheap compared to fiddles so that is where I am coming from price-wise. If $450 is the top of the heap… well, you get the idea.
Don’t let out the secret but I think these guys could charge more and we would pay it. My flute player (I’m in a guitar-flute duo) payed $2k for a custom head joint 12 years ago…The craftsmanship on the Burke is on par with the classical flutes I have seen though not done in silver, which will be the next thing we ooh and aah for (a silver whistle-scuse me if we’re already there and I didn’t know it). Doesn’t Galway bring a gold flute onstage then pull out a Generation for variety?
On 2002-04-02 16:12, aremnius wrote:
Lessee… I don’t know about the other types of brass Burkes. The wide bore model seems to have a lot of fans. I have not read any reviews of the narrow bore. …
Sarah
Burke Narrow/Medium Bore Composite - Soprano/Regular D (1999)
Just a quick note on the Burke Regular D Narrow/Medium Bore Composite. I have one dated 1999. It has a very clear, on-pitch tone with very little chiff. It is tunable and easy to play. It is quiter than most of the whistles I’ve played but the tone carries a little more than expected for the volume. It is still quiet but can be heard because of the clarity of tone and being in-tune, a very sweet sound. The hemispherically shaped windway also seems to resist clogging. Being made of a composite, it is also less affected by weather changes.
Overall lower volume, clearer tone, in-tune, easy to play, weather and clog resistance make it my primary practice whistle for toting everywhere.
Charlie - dead right. A bog standard celtic harp (my “other” instrument) costs £2000 if it’s any good (c.$3000). There’s a lot more wood and parts involved, but manufacturing time is about the same as for a wooden high end whistle.
What this means for we the owners, is that the value will increase over time - doesn’t put money in the pockets of the makers though.