To any who might be considering a McGee Flute.
That’s cool - good flutes with no wait, lucky Terry either wasn’t doing this, or I didn’t know about, back when I was buying!
Loren
I saw his email last night on the woodenflute list and gave into temptation over the Ironwood keyless.
I came this close to getting one of the Pratten keyed.
From now on no reading email after a drams of Scotch. It lowers the inhibitions.
Eddie
A friend of mine was going to buy that ironwood. You probably saved her from financial ruin. 
There are 2 i’d love to have if i could afford them: the Chris Norman model (“Rudall refined”), and that Noe Freres model. Wow!
The Grey Larsen model is very beautiful too.
I was hoping there would be a “Rudall Orgasmic” model available, but sadly, no.
g
Ah, but she could always go for the Gidgee one!!!
Eddie
Why are they so expensive?
I don’t know, jim. They’re so easy to make! 
yah - and there is hardly any wood, it’s mostly hollow! 
I mean he’s charging over 1,400 for keyless flutes.
That’s considerably more, 600 dollars, say, than
keyless flutes made of the same materials
by some good makers.
This isn’t meant as a criticism, it’s a
request for info. I was struck by the
prices. Best
Sorry for the wisecrack. I was referring to a previous thread where this issue of price of wooden flutes was beaten to death.
I think all makers start selling their instruments relatively cheap and then raise them progressively as they gain confidence in their trade and their queue of orders grows. Terry has more seniority than most other makers of Irish flutes, he’s been doing this forever, and must be looking to retire in a few years.
Another factor is that Terry tries to serve the high-end market. He spends more time making each flute than most makers, so this results in a smaller production and higher prices.
http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/about.html
http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/making.html
Still another important factor is that the dollar is weak these days, so flutes made outside the US are more expensive (in dollars) than they used to be in the time when the US was a major economic power. His keyless flutes are about 1,100 Euro, which would have been US$900 not long ago, more or less what Glenn Schultz charges, for example (he charges $800 for a keyless).
That’s what i think. We could always ask him.
g
Thanks.
Terry is a very friendly and approachable guy and has given me good advice about various things over the phone.
However I would never dare to query him (or any other flute maker)
about justification for the prices. Flutes, especially wooden ones, which involve “sculpting”, are works of art.
If you check out his website you will see that he has done groundbreaking stuff
with embouchures, tone holes and things.
Terry lives not more than 3 hours by car from Wombat’s Wollongong.
Glauber is right. The reason they are so expensive is that our dollar is doing terribly. They’re not so expensive to people in other countries.
Taking into acount the current weak dollar, the price for one of Terry’s flutes is probably comparable to that of Patrick Olwell’s. Copley’s are a little cheaper. However, he’s not been making flutes as long (correct me if I’m wrong) and I can’t help but thinking that over time the demand will grow and his prices will creep up too.
As for me, I’ve wanted a McGee flute for a while and that list of available flutes just happened to catch me at a weak point where I was considering buy a new instrument and had some money in the bank.
Eddie
Glauber, Glauber, Glauber… Do you actually know how much time each maker spends on every instrument, or their yearly production numbers? No offense my friend, but you are way out on a limb with your speculation on this one…
Loren
Actually, Glauber, Terry prides himself on not spending too much time on instruments, doing just enough to have them play the way he wants them to. He doesn’t spend extra time on, say, finishing, for that reason. Ask him - he’ll tell you.
I am not aware that Terry’s flute prices changed when the US dollar went down (a bit).
Whatever the current value of the US dollar
circa US$1200 - 1400 for a keyless wooden flute is a lot
for someone like me with Ozzie dollars whether that was
the price in 2002, 2003 or it is the price today.
Even with the so-called weak US dollar today,
US$1400 is about AUS$1900.
See what I mean?
I speculate his flutes are pricey because of the ground breaking
things I referred to earlier.
I think his flutes also have a thingie that allows you
to adjust the cork stopper.
All this info. is on his website.
(long useless explanation of my previous post deleted)
Sorry, Loren (Loren Loren), i didn’t mean to imply that you don’t spend as much time on the flutes you make as Terry does. As you said, there’s no way i can know.
FWIW, i’m bailing out of this thread; i don’t think any good will come from scrutinizing a flute maker’s prices in this forum.
g
Am I missing something here ? I can’t see a very direct relationship between those awful Euro things and the Australian dollar .
Hmm, sorry I missed your (now) deleted post.
I’m not selling flutes (or anything else) at this point in time, so you’re off the mark there- my comment had no hidden meaning, simply that very few people will know exactly how much time McGee, Olwell, Grinter, or whoever, spend on a flute, so for you to speculate that Terry spends more time than most is wildly speculative, that’s all.
For the record, I have no problem at all with Terry’s prices, as far as I’m concerned, these instruments (well made wooden flutes) are generally undervalued as it is.
Loren