Sweetheart Flutes

[Old Dog]

The following was in a message I received from Joseph Morneaux this morning:


"Sweetheart Flute has shut down and Musique Morneaux has taken its place here in the shop... Scrambling to put up a viable website and change the letterhead and moving things about in the workshop... Daunting! Happened a bit more quickly than we had prepared for."

I wish him well.

[sfmans]

The Sweetheart Flute Company website http://www.sweetheartflute.com/ is still up and taking orders, are we talking about another business here?

Might be worth clarifying which we're talking about here ...

[Old Dog]

So far as I know, Joe has taken over Mr. Sweet's business, and he is working on changing the name, etc. Joe has worked for Mr. Sweet for some time, and I would imagine that Mr. Sweet has retired - since he's well along in years. Until all these things are changed, the Sweetheart website will remain the same.

I don't know any of this for sure, it's just speculation on my part. It makes sense, however.

[Loren]

Look at the home page more closely Steve, notification of the change is there.

[sfmans]

Look at the home page more closely Steve, notification of the change is there.

Ah,, my mistake, sorry. Carry on

[pancelticpiper]

Very interesting.

One wonders why they didn't continue using the Sweetheart name.

I also wonder why a family member didn't continue the company.

BTW my first flute was a Sweet flute, bought around 1976. It had a very low serial number (can't remember now but it was around 100). Amazing to see Sweet flutes with serial numbers over 2,000.

Shouldn't this be moved to the flute forum? Well he made whistles too, but flutes were always the main thing.

[Old Dog]

His son is in business at wdsweetflutes.com.

[Nanohedron]

Shouldn't this be moved to the flute forum?

I'll duplicate it over there.

[Tyghress]

Duplicate from the Flute Forum:

Hello C&F! It's been a while since I've been here, but I wanted to clarify what's happening on this, Ralph's 88th birthday! WOOT!!!!!!

Jos Morneault has indeed gone from being the foreman of the shop, chief woodworker and all around neat guy, to being my boss. Another WOOT!!!!!! For the past many years he has been maintaining the high quality of Sweetheart Flute's products, and is now taking the shop forward. Same shop, equipment, materials and skills, and hands making the instruments, but a different signature at the bottom of my paycheck, and a different person taking the risks and financial burdens.

I am proud of the shop I work in, the people I work with, and the long history of Sweetheart Flute as it segues to Musique Morneaux.

With all best wishes to everyone who remembers This Cat,
Amy

[Tyghress]

Very interesting.

One wonders why they didn't continue using the Sweetheart name.

I also wonder why a family member didn't continue the company.

BTW my first flute was a Sweet flute, bought around 1976. It had a very low serial number (can't remember now but it was around 100). Amazing to see Sweet flutes with serial numbers over 2,000.

Shouldn't this be moved to the flute forum? Well he made whistles too, but flutes were always the main thing.

Question one: Legal messiness of dissolving a company -- finances, risks and such -- as well as Jos's well deserved (IMHO) professional credit.
Item three: we stopped putting hand etched numbers on certain instruments years ago. But we have all numbered instruments hand itemized in notebooks!
Item 4: Musique Morneaux is deeply involved in historically accurate reproductions of fifes, as well as whistles (an incredible 10-hole chromatic whistle in both D and C styled for both whistlers and fifers!), and of course flutes. Jos has brought back the walking stick flute (YAYAYAYAY!) and is considering resurrecting the G Tabor Pipe (I am particularly thrilled with this one).

Having slid precariously toward commercial post, I hereby sign out. . .

The Cat

[Nanohedron]

With all best wishes to everyone who remembers This Cat,
Amy

Howdy, stranger.

[whistlecollector]

Item three: we stopped putting hand etched numbers on certain instruments years ago. But we have all numbered instruments hand itemized in notebooks!

Does that mean you can tell who made a particular (numbered) instrument and when?

It would be pretty cool to find out that kind of thing!

[pancelticpiper]

I still have a couple Sweetheart catalogues from the 1970s.

As mentioned above, they have more variety that one normally sees in a maker of Irish flutes, because they offered

-Irish flutes
-wood whistles
-tabor pipes
-Baroque flutes
-walking-stick flutes
-and of course fifes.

In college I was briefly a Music Major and my instrument was Baroque flute, a Sweetheart Baroque flute, which played beautifully.

[Tyghress]

Item three: we stopped putting hand etched numbers on certain instruments years ago. But we have all numbered instruments hand itemized in notebooks!

Does that mean you can tell who made a particular (numbered) instrument and when?

It would be pretty cool to find out that kind of thing!

I can tell you the wood, and the rough date. Any given instrument usually passes through a few hands, so I couldn't tell you a single person that made it. But if its a keyed flute I can tell you that indeed passed through Ralph's hands. If it shipped during my tenure, I can tell you I played at least two full scales on it before it got packed and shipped. Except fifes. I'm not great on fifes. Yet.

Tygh

[pancelticpiper]

I can't find the catalog(ue) from the 1970s, but I found one from 1982.

It's a Legal size piece of paper that is folded in four.





Here's the one from 1985. A different format, a larger sheet of paper folded in 6.

Note the keyed flute, on the cover of the 1982 catalog, no longer appears.

What's new is walking stick flutes and more fifes.