Chiff and Fipple Forums

empire_brass wrote:
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Lastly we are the `only' company from India with these value for money products and since we are selling them unbranded at most times, we are now finding copies of our products around the place which are actually quite shoddy so do consider this to be a caveat to our Indian (not Pakistani) flutes, etc. .............
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Thank you for your time and attention and I do hope to have more opinions from you all so that we can continue to improve ourselves and our products.

More info on our products is available at www.synergyhouse.net

Distributor/wholesaler enquiries to be sent to ceo@synergyhouse.net

This is an excerpt from a sticky flute topic about Pakistani made Irish flutes.

I have started this topic to take up the invitation seeking our opinions as to how Empire Brass may improve its Indian made Irish flutes.

A couple of years ago I bought a flute via Ebay from Synergyhouse/Empire Brass. It wasn't a wooden flute but a plastic one (don't know what kind) - and although it looked very(!) nice (keys, case and everything) the thing wasn't worth 1 cent. To start off with - it wasn't in D as described but in Eb. Secondly it could hardly produce a sound at all.

I know this wasn't the point of your thread, talasiga, but I just wanted to share. Maybe they have improved since, but they seem to want to disassociate from the "Pakistani" flute - but their "Indian" is (at least it seems to me) just the same... Tomato-tomato!

Talasiga, I do see where you are coming from starting this thread, but I think it is unlikely to take off properly because 1) it isn't a sticky (unlike the other one) and probably unlikely to be made so; 2) you haven't copied over the relevant posts from the other thread or even links to them; 3) it would have been more to the point when those posts were current. (I know I've only just stuck my correspondence with Empire Brass on, but that was in the context of and linked to Terry McGee's "Ethical Dilemma" thread.)

FWIW, I'd suggest pm-ing the mods on the likelihood of sticky-dom for this thread and then other contributors of relevant posts asking them to copy over their posts. I'll happily do that with mine if there proves to be any point in doing so.

For starters, they could listen to their eBay feedback, which is deceptively "good" until you realize that several comments are actually "neutral" or withdrawn:

http://www.toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?Us ... eceived+by

They're really running closer to 90%, which is actually quite poor.

Charlatans!

I don't understand eBay scoring, but I do understand "instrument tres mediocre" and "mala calidad está" and "no suena bien" as not being all that positive.

talasiga wrote:

empire_brass wrote:
.......
Lastly we are the `only' company from India with these value for money products and since we are selling them unbranded at most times, we are now finding copies of our products around the place which are actually quite shoddy so do consider this to be a caveat to our Indian (not Pakistani) flutes, etc. .............
...................................

Thank you for your time and attention and I do hope to have more opinions from you all so that we can continue to improve ourselves and our products.

More info on our products is available at www.synergyhouse.net

Distributor/wholesaler enquiries to be sent to ceo@synergyhouse.net

This is an excerpt from a sticky flute topic about Pakistani made Irish flutes.

I have started this topic to take up the invitation seeking our opinions as to how Empire Brass may improve its Indian made Irish flutes.

Hi Talasiga,

My first encounter with you on this forum since I became an apostate to the flute.

Indian and Pakastani wind instruments IMHO appear to be produced as visual pieces to be displayed on the wall or sideboard of wouldbe players. The instruments are generally visually pleasing, however they are nearly all out of tune.

My first encounter with "Eastern" wind instruments was when I was starting to play the low whistle and wanted an inexpensive in to the market. One very helpful shop kindly tested some 20 low D whistles and only 2 were anywhere near true to tuning. Roughly the same was true of the tone produced, just a few sounded right. The problems would seem to be that none of the instruments were tuned or tweaked by an expert. I have come to deeply respect the ability of individuals who can tune and voice an instrument - it is a real skill!!!

Following on my whistle experience, I would not even consider any of these "Eastern" instruments, unless I am looking for a stage prop or an ornament for my wall.

Right, FWIW, here are some demo clips on the Eb ebonite, Pratten style flute I have (2nd hand off eBay). I assume it is one of the ones by Empire Brass as it looks exactly like theirs and I haven't seen any others closely similar advertised, but obviously I cannot state with certainty that it is an Empire flute.

I have not (yet) modified this flute in any way other than to put in a replacement stopper in the head as the original was loose and leaked. It really is not that bad - certainly not unplayable. I realise the production quality may be inconsistent and I have only tried this one, but if they are mostly around as good/bad as this, they are fit for a bit more than ornamental use, unlike some of the cosmetically pretty but musically truly dire keyless ones one sees.

I have no interest in these other than to see fair play. They do have deficiencies, as I outlined in my detailed description of this one on the Sticky thread, and as these clips show - though bear in mind that my playing is also deficient, especially on a flute that I rarely pick up, leading to missed fingerings and not necessarily properly adjusted embouchure. As I said before, I have played keyless flutes by current "reputable" makers that were worse out of tune with themselves than this is. I still think that a re-cut tweak to the embouchure will get a much stronger tone from this flute, and the very flat keyed C natural hole can be tuned up, although it is really not in the right place. The only other adjustments necessary are to the design of the keys to put them in comfortable reach.

This is close - frustratingly close - to being a decent entry level 8-key flute. It is NOT quite there and I'm not trying to make it sound better than it is, but neither does it deserve some of the oprobrium being thrown around. Listen to the clips!

Chromatic Scale - low "C" to 3rd 8ve G#

Slip Jig - An Phis Fliuch (Sorry for inflicting this one on you all yet again, but I find it a really good tune for testing out a flute.....)

Double Jig - Queen of the Rushes

Reels - Maid of Mount Cisco & The Musical Priest

NOTE: I am cross-posting this on the Sticky thread as that is where the main discussion has been hitherto.

Please, dear God....no more stickies!

Rob