Is this System flute any good?

Irish Flute
1

Was just doing some browsing regarding the simple system flute and found a link to this. It’s very cheap but are such flutes worth buying?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Traditional-Irish-Wooden-D-Flute-Rosewood-4-Part-26-3-Part-23-with-Case/282791712475?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20190717082801%26meid%3D27178efb946b403aafa51920f7ce489e%26pid%3D100889%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dag%26sd%3D162008467629%26itm%3D282791712475%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2349624&_trksid=p2349624.c100889.m5204

2

Nope, unless you need something to ward off dog attacks!

3

I bought one of those, or similar, without the tuning slide. It was terrible. Extremely difficult to play. I finally just tossed it.

4

But that’s the “imporved” version with a “tunning slide”…

See the sticky above about these eBay items.

Best wishes.

Steve

5

Thanks guys, I’ll skip them.

6

Are there cheapish simple flutes out there, not for playing ITM? I’m not really interested in just playing ITM.

7

Try on e of these

8

Looks good. I wonder if they have such flutes on Amazon (I don’t do ebay)

9

(I don’t do ebay)

Your question, about a flute on ebay, suggested otherwise. :really:

10

Hmmmm. I don’t know about that. I mean the price is certainly low, so if it doesn’t play when you get it then you haven’t lost much. But looking at the size, the cut of the embouchure hole and such, it might prove to be a temperamental piccolo bansuri :slight_smile: Definitely going to be high-pitched, which may be what you are after, but that’s got to be a high D.

I bet you can do a lot better if your budget reaches a bit higher.

11

Yea I prefer the lower pitched instruments

12

Everything on eBay is for ITM. That’s why all the URLs start http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/!

13

IMO, playable ITM flutes are good for many sorts of music, not just for ITM. The bamboo flute pictured is probably unplayable. Looks probably way out of tune, at best. The qualification ‘beginners’ helps here.

14

The bamboo flute pictured is probably unplayable. Looks probably way out of tune, at best. The qualification ‘beginners’ helps here.

I really thought a tongue in cheek emoticon with that post wasn’t necessary. But apparently.. :tomato:

15

Yes, the internet does not reliably communicate irony. People think you mean it.
Long ago, when people were desperate to buy more whistles, I posted an ironic message
‘Will sell Mom into slavery for money for whistles.’ The mods wisely deleted, but not before
I received three offers.

To the Operative Poster: the drift of the thread is that going very cheap is likely throwing away money. You end up with something unplayable and unsellable. As I see it (ahem), good flutes are money in another form. If you choose wisely you can get your money out again, more or less, if you ultimately need the cash. There are some very good flutes for under 400 dollars, including delrin flutes.

16

That flute is much more expensive than the asking price.

First you buy it for $50, then you chuck it. Then you buy a different cheap flute for $200. Then you abandon that.

Eventually, you buy a $400 flute from Casey Burns (by way of example), at which point you have spent $650. Instead, you should have just bought Casey’s $700 standard flute.

When it comes to inexpensive musical instruments, you’ve got Shakey-egg, Bodhran and Whistle. For Flute, Violin or Guitar? Maybe $700 for a fine one, $2,000 for a superlative one. Pipes or box cost what, $3,000 - 4,000?

It takes 3 to 5 years to learn flute, so your cost is really $700/5/12 or $12/month. In beer money that’s about 3 beers/month.

The other way to economize would be to buy a really good second-hand flute for $1,200 (or whatever). Play it for a couple years, decide that flute isn’t your thing, and sell it back through the same shop. This only costs you the commission, 15-20%. (Does VAT screw you?)

17

My budget is incredibly low. 400 bucks is way above what I can afford as I’m unemployed.

18

Try Googling “making a pvc flute”. There are several sets of directions there whereby you get an inexpensive instrument (and probably better than eBay cheapos) as well as learning a bit more about how these instruments are constructed.

Best wishes.

Steve

19

I bought a Chinese bamboo flute in ‘F’ for about £8, I didn’t think it would be any good, but to my surprise, it plays in tune as far as I’ve played it, up to second octave lower fingering.

Another option is to check out fifes, they’re not all in ‘Bb’, some go down to ‘G’.

Check this one out.
(You could likely contact him directly, if you don’t like Ebay.)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/G-Fife-aluminium/272455233835?hash=item3f6f98f12b:g:C~UAAMXQyFFTkWYd
(I bought one of his low ‘D’ flutes, pre used, it sounds pretty good.)

If you need cheaper, take a look at the Yamaha fife, it’s in ‘C’, plays similar to a recorder, only held horizontally. See Youtube videos for sound samples.

Don’t forget the Tony Dixon high ‘D’ ABS piccolo, plays quite well.

20

You could try one of Doug Tipple’s PVC flutes. They go for $110. They are well regarded.

You could make one out of PVC. Doug Tipple has detailed directions on his web site. Can’t promise it will be a good, but at its simplest a flute is a tube with holes in it. He explain what you are doing and why.

I’m honestly not exaggerating when I say the one I got on ebay was awful. Really unplayable. I’m not a great flute player but I can play some and I can get a good tone out of a variety of flutes. That one I got? No, Just a lot of air. It was actively discouraging