Threaded Tenons

Ol Danl · Post by **Ol Danl** » Mon Sep 15, 2003 4:21 pm

I have one of the Sweetheart fifes (in G). It has red felt or something like it on the tenon. When this stuff wears out, would thread be the way to go? It's pretty thin, and it might be hard to sand cork that thin and it still hold up.

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 8:34 am

Ralph Sweet uses a different kind of threaded tenon, one that's dry. I'm not sure, but i'm guessing he hot-glues them. The wet threaded tenon would probably work on Sweet flutes just fine, but i've never seen one of his tenons wear out either; they're very resilient.

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 8:57 am

Ralph is very responsive to e mail about such
things. How do you like the G fife? What's it
made of? I have a G Sweetheart in rosewood.
It's so loud at the top, I'm nervous
about my hearing. I'm finally able
to play all the notes--good instrument.

Ol Danl · Post by **Ol Danl** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 11:08 am

I just got the G fife -- in rosewood -- a few weeks ago. I like it fine so far, but I'm really a Boehm player, and mostly a closed-hole player at that. I've been playing the smaller whistles for several years, and have made a feeble attempt at an open-hole Boehm. I also have an old German wooden flute with keys that I had repadded several years ago and it still really will barely play at all. So, with that background, when I tried playing these wooden instruments, I was surprised at how well they speak. The store (in Savannah, Ga.) had the same G fife in maple, rosewood and blackwood. The blackwood was really impressive, but the rosewood sounded pretty good, and was a bit cheaper. The maple was kind of puny by comparison. I have e-mailed Mr. Sweet already about whether to oil it or not, and he said I could but not completely necessary. I just saw this thread, and wondered about this red tenon stuff. I'm still not sure whether this should be considered a fife or a small flute. Any idea on that? Hey, I appreciate y'all responding.

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 12:01 pm

Ol Danl wrote:I have e-mailed Mr. Sweet already about whether to oil it or not, and he said I could but not completely necessary. [...] I'm still not sure whether this should be considered a fife or a small flute. Any idea on that? Hey, I appreciate y'all responding.

Mr Sweet impregnates (most of? all?) the instruments he makes with tung oil under high pressure and he believes that this treatment makes it un-necessary for the owner to oil the instrument.

As for the name, ususally the instrument pitched in D or Db is called a piccolo; the instrument pitched in Bb or sometimes C is called a fife. Anything else, is either called a fife or a flute, but there's no rule, since these instruments are not used very regularly. There used to be marching band flutes pitched in Bb (lower than concert flute) and F (higher than concert flute). The Bb flute is becoming popular again thanks to Matt Molloy and Kevin Crawford. Other than that, there used to be a "flute d'amour" pitched in A (lower than concert flute) in Baroque times. It's amazing that these lower pitched flutes are even playable; they stretch the design of finger holes to the maximum.

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 1:42 pm

Just to stay off topic.

I was listening to Conal O'Grada's Top of Coon CD a few minutes ago, and in one of the tracks he plays an electrifying "Green Gates" on a marching-band F flute, which he calls a fife in the liner notes.