Terry has a great and informative website packed with info, and he obviously follows the proceedings on this forum with some interest. Can anyone out there give me a ringing endorsement for Mr McGee’s flutes? I play a 4 key blackwood Cotter, one-piece Pratten style body. It’s my first proper flute, and although I like it a lot, I’m considering getting a narrower bore, slightly smaller holed 2 piece R&R style flute as well. If you can heartily recommend Terry’s R&R perfected, R&R5088, or other 2 piece flutes, I’d love to hear from you.
Many thanks
m.d.
Terry made me a custom Rudall Perfected in Bnat, ABW, no keys. This thing practically sings when you look at it. I am very happy with it, and could only wish that my other flute was so easy to play.
djm
what’s your other flute then 
berti
It was Terry’s RAF that made me realize how badly I wanted a blackwood flute.
The second octave had a lovely glisten, and the lower octave was very reedy and firm. The flute was a very easy blower through all three octaves.
I never had a chance to play it side by side with my Hamiton, which came later, but I don’t think the McGee had quite the sheer power of the Hamilton; no other flute I’ve tried does. The McGee was certainly a loud, projective flute and a very fine flute in its own right, created with outstanding craftsmanship.
I don’t think anybody would go wrong with one of Terry’s flutes.
–James
I can’t actually endorse his instruments (yet), but I do have a flute on order from him, and he’s a heck of a nice guy to deal with. Others that I talked to from the list had positive things to say. You might do a search for McGee and read what turns up. You might also contact him and ask about people who have bought from him that live in your area.
Oh yeah, contact Doc Jones. He usually keeps some of Terry’s flutes in stock, and seems willing to share his thoughts.
HTH,
dow
I have the McGee Euro RAF at home with me now, and I’ve had it for a good few months. The guy knows he’s stuff alright. The flute is flawless. I have one major complaint though: It’s dead.
It preforms better than any other flute I’ve tried. It has the volume, it has perfect intonation, but somehow it’s just dead. It might be the square embouchure or the eccentric head. It feels like a silver flute. Lots of volume, lots of performance value, but it doesn’t speak to me like a wooden flute should. I don’t get that special feeling that I should get. I play it, and it barks out tunes in an effortless manner but there’s no feeling, no joy, no passion when playing it. It might just be me. I just don’t connect with it.
I would like to try one of his traditional, oval embouchure flutes with standard cylindrical head, but I won’t unless it’s sent to me as a tour flute like this one. The man is more knowledgeable than most people in this bussiness, and he charges thereafter.
Sounds like an embouchure preference to me, but not having played a McGee, I dunno!
But, I have do a McGee kinda like DJM’s on order - a big, low flute. Terry is a wonderful person to deal with and will help you out in choosing a flute.
Hasn’t the RAF been touring for years, now?
I’ve played a McGee ironwood (I think) Rudall 5088 (I think) at a couple of my house gatherings. That flute is amazing. It’s light and quick with a deep sonorous tone. Everyone that plays it remarks that it is a wonderful flute. I agree with the comment that it practically plays itself.
If a certain someone ever wanted to sell it, hopefully they would ask me first! 
Some of us seem to end up with “flute collections” because each flute we have speaks to us differently, and fills a small place in our soul that the others do not. If, however, one can only ever have one flute, it’s great to be able to try out a few before choosing your perfect soulmate…
M
I have a 6-key 5088 with the eccentric bore headjoint. It sings.
I have had two of Terry’s flutes, a Rudall Carte 4 key and my current one, a keyless Gidgee. Both are wonderful instruments.
I had a flute on loan from Peter Noy, with two headjoints. One was a traditional Rudall-style embouchure, the other was a thinned head with a modern-cut/rounded-rectangle/pick-your-name embouchure. I said exactly the same thing about the modern-cut embouchure. It was powerful, responsive, and wicked easy to play, but it lacked that certain wooden-flute character, depth, complexity, whatever. I’m getting the Rudall cut on my soon-to-be Noy flute, and I’m gonna love it.
I’ve had Terry’s Pratten in blackwood for about a year and a half now, and it’s my “go-to” flute for big sessions and gigs. It’s huge-sounding, effortless to play, very responsive, and it just plain never has a bad day. Very generous and big-hearted, if that makes sense (which is why I affectionately refer to it as “Hoss”). I’ve had lots of positive comments on the tone in particular; it compares quite well with an Olwell in terms of volume and richness; however, I’m planning to order a new head with an oval or traditional embouchure cut because I want a little broader range of tonal color plus a bit more “edge” or “nyahh” (which is one of the nicer features of the Olwell, I think) than the “rounded rectangles” cut the McGee presently has allow for.
That said, I still get a bit more of a kick out of my Murrays – when they’re having a good day. But it’s harder to hear myself with them in a big session (we seem to have banjomania around here; then again, it is Kentucky, huh), and they seem a little more environmentally sensitive – so I mostly play them alone (or with just a few other instruments), and when the humidity’s up or I have 20 minutes to play them in.
The Murrays and my Hamilton can be just a riot to play, but they can also be somewhat fussy. The McGee never fails me, it’s got kind of a cool basso profundo hum in your hands – and basically, you can’t really make it sound bad, I don’t think (unless you really stink – then all that volume could be a liability 
).
Have you thought about getting a new headjoint for the Hoss?
That was actually the big question I had for you - what the embouchure was like. But you anticipated it. Thanks.
My McGee will have the 2 circles, but then again it’s an alto flute, so I figured it will have tone to burn.
Anybody know the story on the North American RAF? I put my name on the list a few years ago but never saw it. Is it still making its rounds?
I’ve tried a Noy with a traditional head and the round-rectangle embouchure. It was at a house session and so didn’t get a good listen. Hanz Araki plays the thinned head and is able to make it sound pretty lively but he also has 7 generations of shakuhachi under his belt so he probably has some unique skills.
Cheers,
Aaron
In fact, that’s exactly what I hope to do – unfortunately though, it has to wait until after I fix the roof of my house (lots of wind lately, baaaad news for roll roofing 
).
But yes. After my experiences with the Murrays, the Hamilton, and even a round-blowholed DeKeyser, I’ve decided I prefer the smaller blowhole.
I’m looking forward to getting that roof fixed, let me tell you!
cat.
Henke, I don’t know, that’s a pretty strong statement considering you’ve been playing his flute for free for a few months now! That next flute tour might just circumnavigate around you next time!
But, to your credit, later you said that maybe it’s just you. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that was a better explanation than the first statement about it being dead.
Give that same flute to some other fluter and it may be a completely different story-sometimes it’s all in how you play a flute-if you are just honking out tunes you’re going to get less tonal quality. If you are playing slow airs and you know how to get expression from your flute, it’s a completely different thing. No doubt some flutes (and embouchure holes) are more suited to one type of playing than another, depending on who is playing it.
So, maybe it’s not for you, but give it to another talented fluter that you know is capable of great expression, and see how it sounds in his hands. Have you heard someone else play it that plays well?
Well, maybe “dead” was a very strong word to use.
It’s not so much about the tonal quality, although that has to do with it as well, and it has to be just me because others speak so highly of these flutes. The flute does preform better than anything else I’ve tried. It’s loud, bright and very easy to play, but I guess I don’t connect with its personality. To me it seems like it doesn’t have much of a personality you see, and to me that’s really important.
Although my old M&E does preform very well, it’s not as loud and doesn’t have as clear a voice as many other flutes, but I just love it’s personality, and after trying out many flutes that costs three times as much, I can’t justify a purchase of another, more expensive flute. The Jon C came closest to match the personality of the M&E, and it had other areas where it really excelled, so I just might get one of those later
So this has nothing at all to do with preformance, tonal quality (so much), playability, craftsmanship or anything else like that.
I suspect it’s an embouchure issue as some people suggested earlier. It would probably click a lot easier with a traditional embouchure cut.
Let me suggest we be a bit careful here in erring on the side
of letting people express negative responses to flutes.
It takes courage, there’s a tendency to defend the maker’s
work, and the natural response is that it’s the critic who is
the problem. Maybe so, but better to leave such criticism
room to breathe–it’s very valuable, IMO, and rare.
…and there can be several other variables that can contribute to the
overall assesment. For example, the room you are in where you play
a flute can have a big impact on your impression. Another can be something like if you have a cold and your ears are clogged a bit, etc, etc.
…and also, it can come down to personal taste as well.
It would be interesting to understand the reason a person would keep a borrowed flute for several months that they thought was dead and/or had little personality. 
How about sending it my way? 