Well, after a particularly musically beneficial Christmas (first a Clarke Original in D, then a Sweet Folk Fife in D from my parents which is on back order from the Whistle Shop), I decided to jump into the world of conical bored flutes and ordered a Dixon from The Whistle Shop before their prices went up (I would have bought Doc’s, but my wife hadn’t come around yet…).
My big question is that both the flute and the fife were currently out of stock. They estimated 2 weeks before they received more of either one, and I’m just curious what people’s experience is when they are out of stock:
Is their estimate right on target, or could it take a month or more? I know this is nothing compared to waiting on a keyed Olwell for example, but I’m pretty excited and want them here as of yesterday!
My experience is that Thom from the Whistle Shop is honest and as accurate as it’s possible to be.
When I ordered my Dixon, he said the wait would be about three weeks; it ended up showing up at my house after two weeks.
When I ordered my Overton whistle, it took a bit longer than his initial estimate, because the package got stuck in customs for a couple of days. But he kept me informed.
So… If Thom said you’ll have it in about two weeks, I’d say trust him. He won’t deliberately mislead you - the only way it’ll take longer than he promised is if something he couldn’t predict happens.
Thanks for the reply. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Thom, so it wasn’t a trust/dishonesty issue, but more of a “is 2 weeks just a stock answer or what he really expects”. I’m quite simply antsy and excited. Three conical bore instruments in a one month period is a record for me!
[ This Message was edited by: Jayhawk on 2003-01-05 12:47 ]
Again, in my experience (and I’ve ordered a lot of stuff from Thom), he doesn’t give stock answers. There’s a darn good reason why he’s got such a great reputation: he’s an honest guy, running a business selling things that he knows and loves, and he provides some of the best customer service of any shop that I know.
One of the things that I really love about online shopping is the number of cool little shops, like Thom’s, that you can find. I always like buying things from real people, and I love tiny little stores where the owner is passionate about what they do. The net lets those little shops become visible to me, even though I don’t live near them.
So I can buy my Turkish Coffee gear from Natasha’s Cafe (Natasha is a Russian Emigre who missed drinking turkish coffee so much that she opened her own coffeeshop to introduce Americans to turkish); I can buy my games and books from the Space Crime Continuum (a tiny sci-fi/mystery/rpg store
run by a great guy named Chris Aylott); my
wife can buy her cross-stitch gear from a little shop I-don’t-know-where; and I can buy my whistles and related gear from Thom. I can buy from great people, support small businesses, and get great service.
Again, in my experience (and I’ve ordered a lot of stuff from Thom), he doesn’t give stock answers. There’s a darn good reason why he’s got such a great reputation: he’s an honest guy, running a business selling things that he knows and loves, and he provides some of the best customer service of any shop that I know.
One of the things that I really love about online shopping is the number of cool little shops, like Thom’s, that you can find. I always like buying things from real people, and I love tiny little stores where the owner is passionate about what they do. The net lets those little shops become visible to me, even though I don’t live near them.
So I can buy my Turkish Coffee gear from Natasha’s Cafe (Natasha is a Russian Emigre who missed drinking turkish coffee so much that she opened her own coffeeshop to introduce Americans to turkish); I can buy my games and books from the Space Crime Continuum (a tiny sci-fi/mystery/rpg store
run by a great guy named Chris Aylott); my
wife can buy her cross-stitch gear from a little shop I-don’t-know-where; and I can buy my whistles and related gear from Thom. I can buy from great people, support small businesses, and get great service.
I agree with you about how wonderful the internet is for cool, niche shops. I would love to have Thom’s shop in town, but since I can’t I can at least access it online. As I mentioned in an earlier message, there is no whistle/folk flutish shop closer than 5 hours away across the state!
You have my sympathies Jayhawk. I went through the exact same thing (2-3 week wait) when I ordered my Dixon from Thom. I agree with all the above about Thom.
I got mine in three days from the Doc.
It is nice to be able to pick the delron flute up and play it without warming it up first! It sounds as nice as my old flute after it is warmed and hydrated for 10 min.
I think you will enjoy it. Let me know when you are ready to order those lamp parts for the Pakistan flutes we have!
Oh Jon, you would bring up that #%$&! Pakistani flute. Not that I have any strong feelings about it. I’ve made several bamboo flutes, one really quite good in my opinion, several flat out unplayable due to cracks when I was making them, and one which didn’t crack but is simply bad. On the bad one the upper octave is terrible - weak, out of tune, yet this terrible bamboo flute is 1000 times better than that Pakistani monster. It’s not even worth the price of lamp parts!
OK - rant over. Surprisingly, my Dixon didn’t arrive today…can you guess who is bad at waiting???
Glad to hear that the fife will be there soon.
Sorry to bring up that touchy subject, but we are both stuck with such a potental lamp base…
I think you will really like the Dixon when it comes, when it comes. The brass rings do look cool with the black delrin!
