The March of Technology

Irish Flute
1

:astonished: What would you say to a revolutionary new form of flute!

One that bannishes the short little tuning slide barrel.

Well perhaps the future is upon us!

Or maybe not!

What do you think! :roll:

This is a picture of a barrel-less tuning slide equiped flute from Richard Cox of London, Ontario, thats Canada A. Here is a link to the maker’s website: http://www3.sympatico.ca/rjcox/index.html

Keep Makin Music!

Jordan

2

Hi Jordan,
I’m kind of a traditionalist, I kind of like the barrel look myself…

With that said,
Terry Mcgee offers a similar arrangement. And his is all wood.
http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/heads.html

3

I think you’d have to be careful that the end of the slide didn’t get bent or dented while disassembled, without the barrel to protect it. Seems maybe less practical. Not on the McGee of course, since his is wood. But the metal one?

4

Hey Seisflutes,

That was my opinion as well. The tuning slide is exposed during transport, to get dinged up and spread grease or collect grime.

I just thought it was something different and novel.

Has anyone played on of Richard Cox’s flutes, if so could they offer an opinion? :roll:

Keep Makin Music!

Jordan

5

On his site he says it’s an adaptation of Terry’s slide:

…with brass tuning slide (an adaptation of Terry McGee’s new improved tuning slide)…

6

Tuning slide!

What is wrong with just moving the cork? I swear next you will say that a flute doesn’t play in tune over the octaves and will start mucking around with the cylindrical bore. A good flute player should be able to win flute contests with a water pipe with seven holes cut into it. What next? Devices that get rid of cross fingering? Finger pedals so that you never even touch the column of air?

When will people learn that no amount of gadgets will help you play, only practice will. If you are going to let the machine do all of the work for you might as well get a player piano.

7

I could be wrong, but I think I’ve seen antique French flutes with just such a slide - usually early wooden Boehm keyed flutes.

Eric

8

I played quite a few of his last year (2004) at Goderich. I am definitely not an expert (or even very good) flute player (just ask Jack or Eld :slight_smile: ), but I did like the ones I tried. I like that idea of that tuning slide, as the last time I talked to him, the flutes he was planning on making with tuning slides would have been about double the others (but that was different design too…).

FWIW the main reason I didn’t get one was that I really didn’t (and still don’t) have a couple of hundred dollars laying around. The secondary reason was that I just don’t like the idea of a flute without a tuning slide. The tertiary reason was that I had just purchased a flute on Ebay (and it’s still not playable :slight_smile: ).