An unexpected call

[Terry McGee]

10:25pm last night found me sitting in my favourite chair, musing about the day, as I like to do. Then the phone rang.

The caller turned out to be from Sailkot in Pakistan. I think his name was Mohammed (I was a little taken aback by the unexpected call, especially at that hour) and he described himself as a flute maker. That all hangs together well.

The reason for the call was to enquire why I hadn't returned his emails. Certainly, I often receive emails from his company offering flutes etc at extremely low prices. I've even had follow-up emails asking why I hadn't got back to them, and have given up responding, "sorry, not interested".

So, I thanked him for the call, and reiterated that I wasn't interested in buying another maker's flutes. He seemed a little taken aback (the score at this point, one all), and set off on another tack. They could supply keys, rings, caps, tuning slides, etc. at very good prices. Again I thanked him, but repeated I wasn't interested in acquiring such components, as I enjoyed making them myself. This seemed to really surprise him, and he politely rang off.

Thinking about it afterwards, I guess it does go against the trend to globalisation. If someone in another country can turn out items far cheaper than you can, it makes economic sense to stop making them yourself and to buy them in. Boosey & Hawkes bought in cheaply made metal Boehm flutes from somewhere in Eastern Europe and stamped them Rudall Carte, thus contributing to the downhill slide of that marque. If we all went down that path, pretty soon all of our flutes would look like Pakistani flutes. They would be cheaper, but is that all we want?

Terry

[Casey Burns]

I get the same - though no calls recently. But I did get a call once from someone who was actually passing through Seattle and insisting that I consider selling his flutes, after several emails. He seemed aghast that I wasn't interested. They must get that from most of the makers - so I wonder what their aims are. Perhaps the one traveling through was trying to size up the competition or glean factory secrets. Not that I have any, really. It must be frustrating to them. But then I wonder what their actual volume of flutes sold is. They do pretty well on bagpipes, it appears. But maybe this is some sort of scam.

[psychodonald]

You're right, they do well apparently with the selling of cheap, crappy bagpipes. The persons that they take advantage of are those who are uninformed, thinking that they can get something for almost nothing and have no idea what they are buying. I can imagine that I would have gone down that same road years ago had I not had the good fortune of having a pipe teacher(s) who gave me good direction and advice. I learned a long time ago that you get what it is that you pay for.

Now with flutes, when I decided that I wanted to learn to play, I had the good fortune of finding this web site and asked a lot of questions regarding flutes and what to look for, you know, like many of the beginners who usually ask the same questions over and over again. I say, good on them for coming to a group of persons who are willing and patient and respond with the best advice and ideas that they have based upon vast experience. It certainly helped me a great deal and I didn't become discouraged because I bought some kind of second/ third rate piece of junk only suitable for proping open your window at night or playing fetch with your dog.

I look at all of the posts recently which address some of the flutes that are under, say $500.00 and think of how very helpful many of the suggestions are for persons who are, most likely just beginning the adventure of playing the flute and may not have a lot of money on hand at present.

And Casey, the flute you made for me in June (the Rudall Carte copy--boxwood), I took out on its maiden voyage this last Saturday and played a solo at a concert here locally. It sounded beautiful and I did well. I hasten to point out that it wasn't me that sounded good, it was the instrument!!! A huge thanks to you and all of the other professional makers who so freely contribute to this forum.

[Dominic Allan]

Making flutes and bagpipes I get a double dose of this! I've only had one phone call (email by the score)and thankfuly that was while I was out , he just left a message. I've never taken the time to reply to email or phone messages.

[mutepointe]

Have you considered that when they call you the next time, tell them that you are interested in selling flutes to them at outrageous prices? Just don't tell the person the price is outrageous.

[Feadoggie]

Hmmm... I wonder if and when a respected maker next gets a call from Sailkot whether they could ask for a list of references to other makers/sellers that do utilize or re-brand their wares. Such a list of references might cut down on the length of threads full of conjecture about the origins of some products we've discussed lately.

Feadoggie

[Denny]

tryin' ta limit board/bored activity, are ya?

[Doug_Tipple]

tryin' ta limit board/bored activity, are ya?

Talk Like A Pirate Day was a couple days ago, Denny, or am I missing the dialect?
Anyway, Feadoggie has a good point, in my opinion.

[Denny]

I thought that I always talked funny


jes' tryin' ta add some colo(u)r to da place

[Nanohedron]

Anyway, Feadoggie has a good point, in my opinion.

Definitely worth a try.

Oh, and not to nitpick, but it's Sialkot (see-ALL-coat), people. Not Sailkot. If you want to keep the psychological upper hand with a representative from that city, IMO every little bit helps. And if you mention its nickname "The City of Iqbal", my money sez you'll really catch 'em off guard.

On the Zazzle website I found a t-shirt that actually says "Sialkot Irish", complete with four-leafed clover in place of shamrock! The very ramifications of it boggle the mind. Anyway, they won't let me copy the pic of it for your delight or, as the case may be, horror. So, here's a link to it instead.

[jemtheflute]

& & even

Oh, and without premature elaboration here, I can say I today received the touring McCarty flute and the rings are definitely identical with those on the genuine Pakistani FLO I have, so he is one of the buyers of such things at the very least. Terry's note is a timely illustration of the availability of such parts as well as the "finished" FLOs.

[Feadoggie]

And they sometimes don't get the spelling right either.

Feadoggie

[plunk111]

One of my BIG pet peeves is a shamrock with 4 leaves! I even have a t-shirt with one on it! While there might be 4-leafed shamrocks somewhere in Ireland (and I'm sure they're REALLY lucky there), the fame of the shamrock comes from St Patrick and his explanation of the holy trinity by using it as one of the earlier visual aids.

Pat

[I.D.10-t]

Thought it was suppose to be a green Iris...






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