Chiff and Fipple Forums

Does this maker (McCarty Instruments ) have a good reputation. I am looking for a nice 'starter' blackwood flute and saw this on eBay
here --->
http://cgi.ebay.com/Traditional-African ... 27add60dd1

Can anyone here help to guide me towards a good selection. I am a flute player of long standing. I now play on silver flutes but like the sound of a good Irish flute..........................thank you............ Ugo

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=73221

Many of us favor the flutes of Casey Burns. His folk flute is hard to beat for a wooden flute at that price point.

Hmmm, so the previously anonymous Pakistani flutes now sport an Irish sounding name? Sigh! See the Sticky about cheap Ebay flutes.

Terry

ah....at least they're getting better at marketing

Terry McGee wrote:Hmmm, so the previously anonymous Pakistani flutes now sport an Irish sounding name? Sigh! See the Sticky about cheap Ebay flutes.

Terry

Actually, I had read the sticky and that's what prompted me to inquire about the AD here in the forum. So, I can rest assured that the flute in question is not a good choice? If so I'll check on the "Casey Burns" suggested by crookedtune ..........thanks for the help................Ugo

Ugo, I just wanted to add this: Terry McGee, who responded above, is one of today's foremost flutemakers. He doesn't produce anything priced as low as Casey's folk flute, (to my knowledge), but as you get looking at who the makers are, he'll be right up among the best. You'll enjoy his website: http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/

Good luck!

Another good option is Copley & Boegli flutes: http://www.copleyflutes.com/
The all-wood model is reasonably priced and very good.

Also available here (as are many others): http://www.irishflutestore.com

Another good resource is http://www.firescribble.net/flute/

Their website states they have factories in the USA and Europe. We're jumping to conlcusions that these are middle eastern or Indian subcontinent in manufacture. They could have their very own shoddy factory in some economically depressed European country, too.

I wish a piper would speak up about them since they're primarily a highland pipe making company. As a former sax player, I've never heard of their saxophones...yet it looks like they make them.

Even if they do end up being their own make and model, the price is about the same as so many better known, and established, flute makers prices (for their basic models) that I think it would be risky to buy one of these without knowing more.

Eric

Or in the USA, for all that matters

The thing that bothers me most here, is that they state a "suggested retail price" at their website, and then sell their flutes "directly" on eBay for half of that price, with some empasis on that fact.

Heh heh, if they are making them themselves in the US and Europe, they have achieved a remarkable copy of the ugly Pakistani flute in my Research Collection:



(excepting of course I have the keyed version) Reviewing the note I've made about it in my catalog of the collection:

Pakistani-made 8-key flute

"In the late 20th century, several Pakistani firms began manufacturing 8-key flutes, unfortunately without the benefit of guidance or wisdom. The flute pictured above was sent to me by a disgruntled owner, with a note asking me to do with it whatever I thought best. It is a miserable instrument, poorly made, out-of-tune, difficult to play. After some deliberation I concluded the only appropriate use for it was to include it in this collection as a warning to others."

I regularly receive emails from the company who makes these things, offering them to me at prices around US $60. In my view they are not worth that, let alone the prices they are going for on Ebay.

Terry

I see Waltons are selling a very cheap rosewood flute, under the name McBrides Irish Flute. Does anybody know anything about them?
http://www.waltons.ie/Product/View.aspx ... 02&cid=219

When I lived in Tucson, I was acquainted with a couple who were in the process of starting a string supply business. The man travelled to Europe to buy factory violins, and then they would sit around the kitchen table and decide what they were going to name the instruments that they intended to sell in their catalogue and online. I thought that it was kind of humorous at the time, but I guess that this is the way that it is done in the retail music business. You are free to create your own label. So it is no surprise that the Pakistani companies are selling flutes with very Irish sounding names. As with everything else, it is let the buyer beware.

crookedtune wrote:Ugo, I just wanted to add this: Terry McGee, who responded above, is one of today's foremost flutemakers. He doesn't produce anything priced as low as Casey's folk flute, (to my knowledge), but as you get looking at who the makers are, he'll be right up among the best. You'll enjoy his website: http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/

Good luck!

Yes - I am aware of Terry and also of the makers mentioned by Tintin........Copley & Boegli. I have been examining their respective websites for a few days now. I wanted to mention something though. Since I am already an accomplished player on the silver flute (Boehm system) does that mean I still should still consider myself a beginner on the Irish flute? I suspect the answer might be yes huh?

[ No oversized fonts, please. It looks like shouting. Thanks. - Mod ]

Jim may be politically correct, but little more, IMO. I'd recommend buying the flute of a known and trusted maker.

Edited to say: Forsooth, is it phantoms at which I rail? Said post by Jim has vanished as wisps upon a morning meadow.