Subject says it all. Now don’t all frantically start bidding, but there’s an interesting keyless alu (?) flute on eBay, priced to start at 50 quid.
I’m not really interested in it (apart from the fact it’s 50 quid and looks nice), since I don’t thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink I’d buy a flute off eBay (too chancy but then no risk no fun), so here’s the link:
And no, I don’t have any connections with the seller *G
Would be interested to hear your comments. I googled on Kerry flutes but didn’t come up with anything. Kerry Whistles I know, but they’re, well, Whistles.
Last summer I tried out a similar instrument in a shop in Brittany. I don’t know, it might have been the same make. Anyway, the sound of it wasn’t great at all, nowhere near a wooden, bamboo or boehm flute. And given that the holes are just as big as the ones on the low whistle it might also be quite hard to play with rockstro grip. But sure I haven’t tried that particular one on Ebay…and if the price does not rise, it’s still cheaper than a quality low whistle. Hm…
I have played the flute on and off for two years and mostly butchered the
fife for four or more. So, take my humble non-trained opinion with a grain
of salt.
The Flute that I have is identical to the on in the picture. Down to the
stamped “D” at the bottom of the flute, that leaves a bump on the inside
of the tube. The two sections are held together with dental floss. The
lath turning is rough and unpolished. The plastic plug is just that
Non-movable and solid. The blowhole is a bit rough but works.
I believe that I purchased it form Hobgoblin for 80$.
I like it. I use it for camping and environments that I do not want
to worry about if the trunk of my car gets hot enough to melt plastic.
I will get rid of it when some one makes a solid stainless simple
system flute, but no one (competent and in their right mind) would
ever do that.
P.S. I will be happy if some one proves my last statement wrong.
Breton flute player Michel Bonamy told me about his plans of making conical metal flutes years ago while he was living in Clare. He is back in Brittany now making wooden flutes I believe, but I have no idea what happened to his plan.
There were metal simple system flutes
in India; I bought one in Delhi and played
it, sounded pretty good, but I had
trouble with condensation. Which
I still had it.
I have seen the cylindrical metal flutes at Lark in the morning that
are silver-plated. They are interesting to look at and non tunable.
I have not heard any reviews. However, really I would like to trade
up rather than replace my current.
There was a maker (Cave flutes?) that hade an interesting product
(one piece Boem tapered) a while back but when I found his sight
it was reduced to one page. The waybackmachine web sight had
some of his pages archived so that i could at least read up on it a
little.
Making a conical flute would take a lot more research and design to
get something playable than I could ever afford. Most flute makers
probably use wood laths unsuitable for metal work. (I could be very
wrong here) I am not interested in a curtain rod that has holes
punched in it so I will wait.
Yes, cavewinds. He was retooling to have an all-aluminum flute instead of using epoxi on the mouthpiece. I got in touch and was all set to order a flute when he re-opened, exchanged a couple of emails, then the guy disappeared from the face of the earth, doesn’t respond to emails anymore, and his Web site is dead. I’m afraid something nasty happened to him. I asked around a few times and nobody seems to know.
The thing that I do not understand is the fact that they call it a Kerry
flute. Mine hade no such advertising. Looking at the Kerry Whistles
I do not see much resemblance. I wonder if it could be confirmed by
the designer (Phil Hardy?) or manufacturer.
MMMM…Call me cynical, but probably because if they had just called it a fife (which is what it looks like to me) we wouldn’t be talking about it now? Like how every musical instrument you blow into has become “Irish” all of a sudden.
In fact e-bay sellers seem to be cottoning on to the mildly obsessive nature of Uillean Pipers (why does everyone seem to capitalise that? or is it just me?), not long ago their was a quite nice looking vintage tune book which appeared to be irish tunes arranged for piano (as they mostly seem to be), the seller had however used the words UILLEAN PIPES as often as poss. in the description. ie. “these tunes could also be played on the UILLEAN PIPES etc. etc.” I think it made a tidy sum. :roll:
