I would like to try a rim blown flute. I’ve never played one of any type.
Anasazi, Quena, Kaval, Ney, etc. ??? I’m open at this point.
What I need is a relatively inexpensive, well made instrument. I don’t want to invest too much without knowing that its something I really want to pursue.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks ,
Roger
Here’s a description how you can make a simple yet functionable kaval from PVC tubing - you won’t get it any cheaper!
http://papuga.byethost32.com/kaval.html?i=1
There are also a few videos on youtube.
Bob Snider’s page gives you some information on the instrument in general, as well as a beginner’s tutorial for playing: http://www.robertsnider.com/kavals/
I just posted this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUrHUNkYz18
About $50. Great place to start. If you watch the video, you’ll see I haven’t quite got the hang of it yet. 
Just thinking out aloud, but seeing Jim’s video, I wonder if you could use a low ‘D’ whistle without fipple/head(?), or maybe, if you cut off the windway of a whistle’s fipple(?).
Anyone, any thoughts?
EDITED to say that I just tried removing the fipple & it works. 
Some years back, when I was learning Andean music, I got fine quenas/kenas from Bolivian makers. But the very best were several I bought from Jeff Whittier, who is primarily a maker of northern Indian classical flutes, or bansuris. He was making his Andean winds with painstakingly hand-carved notches, unusual in a time when most people use rat-tail files for expediency. At the time, Jeff was offering bamboo quenas and the larger quenachos. Sorry I lack contact information, but Jeff should be findable via Google. Last I heard, he was based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Thanks to all for your replies.
I purchased a PVC 4-hole Mohave style flute from Mark Purtill who made Jim’s “Anazita” flute in the video.
Should be exactly the same blowing technique. Just fewer notes to worry about.
I strongly advise you to try the ney.
Just listen to this group.. It has the best sound among all woodwind instruments.
But it is also worth mentioning that the ney is among the most difficult flutes of it’s kind to master! They are amazing, but they are not the most accessible flute to start with. The quena is probably an easier choice (not better, just easier).
And in this discussion, let’s not omit the shakuhachi, since it another type of rim blown flute.
I was interested in this comment, being a flute maker myself (and I make quena among many other types of flutes). I was wondering what the virtue (or even the difference) was between hand-carved notches and those made with a file? When you speak of hand-carving the notch, do you mean that he does it with a carving knife or x-acto knife? And does he omit the use of files altogether? That seems surprising to me. With most embouchure cuts of all kinds, be they notches, blades, ellipses (for transverse flutes) etc., they are commonly finished with some type of file (in my case I favor various grits of sandpaper wrapped around a thin metal cylinder in lieu of a file). Completing the proper bevels, undercuts, etc. and doing it smoothly usually ends up requiring something like this. I can’t envision carving the notch and not using some type of filing/sanding method to finish it cleanly.
And speaking as someone who has cut a lot of notches in my career, I don’t tend to think of any type of file as being very expedient, simply because it takes skill and practice (and elbow grease). To be fair, filing might be expedient compared to carving the notch with a knife, so you might have a point 
Speaking of the shakuhachi, I decided to try one of those as well. As a total neophyte I didn’t feel ready for one of the beauties by Geoffrey Ellis, so I opted for a shakuhachi yuu. Seeing that they are temporarily unavailable in the USA, I purchased one directly from Japan. Ordered on October 17th, shipped the 18th and arrived at my door today the 20th at noon! All for $120.
So far I have successfully but inconsistently produced a tone. I’ll be checking out Youtube videos for some instruction.
I wonder about these rim blown flutes. I was wondering if I could remove the head from one of my recorders (I do have a tenor) and blow across the tenon and get a sound.
You don’t really blow across it like you would do on a panflute, the technique for rim-blown flutes is explained here: http://www.robertsnider.com/kavals/KavalBeginning.html
and yes, you can do that with every tube. In case of the recorder you won’t get an in-tune scale as recorder headpieces are very long and therefore incorporate a good part of the overall instrument length. To get a good scale you’d need to saw it off right at the labium (I do NOT advise you to do so… 
).
Try taking the head off one of your whistles, I tried it, & it works - but it’s not easy to play.
That sounds really hard. But it doesn’t quite describe what the mouthpiece looks like. Is it like a quena’s mouthpiece, or is it just a flat edge?
That’s what it looks like - a beveled edge.
Ah, interesting thanks
I tried to play one of those once and I needed about 20 minutes till it made a sound at all. And I do play the quena. So those rim blown flutes without a nodge are much harder to play.
Good man yourself - it took me about the same time, but with help from a brilliant teacher.
He told me the average time students need to just produce a well-defined tone is between three weeks and three months.
I’m not too experienced in them but find a properly made one to be a real joy musically. So my only advice is to source an instrument from a maker guaranteed to know what they’re doing and be reliable, so that the only challenge is getting used to the instrument, and to never put yourself in the fate of dealing with a faultily-crafted instrument. And to not know the difference can be VERY frustrating!
The mouthpiece area is critically important, the blade design, and the seal that’s possible at the end of the tube. The instrument will likely have a sweet spot, where the air flow, if directed properly, will suddenly make a very musical tone, clear and rich. A poorly made one, like one of the rapidly carved out gimmick pieces sold to unsuspecting tourists at music festivals, for a low impulse-buy price, is a risky venture. From there, check the intonation, but if the bamboo or other material is reasonably consistent along its length, then intonation from a skilled crafter, should be acceptable. But test it out if you can. If you can’t, buy only from an acknowledged maker of instruments getting consistent good reviews.
That being said, if you ever drop into an importer store in North America and happen to try out some instrument that has a nice character to it, give it a fast test drive. Maybe one of the cheap instruments is a gem and you can walk out with a great little instrument. I’ve browsed through such stores and played the various instruments. Some types of instrument are more reliably made than others, but still, from instrument to instrument of the same “model”, you can have a wide variety of qualities and responses. But there are some gems in such places, and usually the store owner or person traveling the world in search of clothes and gifts and items to fill their store, isn’t a keen musician and isn’t sharp on detecting which ones are low quality and which ones are far better.