New member & just made my first CPVC Flute in D

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Jayhawk
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Post by Jayhawk »

I just wanted to say "hi" (I'm new), and say what a cool site this is. I didn't know there was an entire website dedicated to tin whistles and flutes. My wife used to think just I was nuts, but now she thinks everyone associated with the board is nuts, too... :wink:

I also wanted to thank everyone who in the past posted information about making their own flutes. I mainly play my Hall Crystal Flute in D (which I really like), but I travel fairly regularly for work and wanted something I felt better about tossing in the luggage and traveling with. I was going to buy a polymer flute or perhaps Doug Tipple's PVC flute, but after reading a few links from this site I broke out the old drill and went to work...

I now have a CPVC (3/4" copper pipe series) flute in low D. I added a raised embouchure area and made it two pieces and tunable (drove my wife nuts tonight repeatedly playing the same note in 2 octaves to get it in tune - for over an hour), and I'll be darned if the thing doesn't sound nearly as good as the Hall Flute. I'll need to play with it a bit more, and may try a second with a smaller embouchure (this one is 1/2"), but it is still ideal for travel and hiking. Plus, it's fun to make something yourself.

I'm also now on the lookout for local bamboo groves I can harvest - either from neighbor's yards or from river areas in my state where there is a native bamboo that grows wild. Instrument making is flat out addictive!
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Doc Jones
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Post by Doc Jones »

What a blast! Maybe I'll have to give that a whirl. It would be a great project for the kids (I have 13...mostly adopted). Are there plans somewhere for a G flute so the kids could reach the holes?


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Jayhawk
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Post by Jayhawk »

Here's the link that got me started:

http://www.cwo.com/~ph_kosel/designs.html

It actually has plans for a flute in G on it, and it has a link to the aptly named "flutomat" that will allow you to design flutes out of different pipes than his instructions cover.

They're really pretty easy to make, especially if you're not overly concerned about exact concert pitch so you could crank out 13 in one long evening.
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Patrick
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Post by Patrick »

http://www.friendlyplumber.com/pipe_flute.html

This one is in G. I think it is an ingenious idea and I mean to try it someday soon! Maybe over Christmas vacation.

I made a G flute a while back out of 1/2" schedule 40 pvc, using aproximate measurements in Making Simple Musical Instruments by Bart Hopkins. It is fairly easy to play and it was very cheap. Since Home Depot sells 10' lengths of the white pipe for less than $2.00, it was a pretty cheap instrument. The cpvc is a little more expensive, so with the caps included, you might have to put out as much as (gasp!) a buck a flute to make them.

No homebuilt instrument can equal the quality of a good professional flute, of course, but it can provide a great instrument for travel, giving to deserving kids, and just having something to play that you made yourself. Now I want to go buy some pipe...

-Patrick
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Jayhawk
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Post by Jayhawk »

That's another good link.

I think sometimes you just have to go whole hog and pay the extra $.50 and get the nicer material...

Seriously though, I made a PVC schedule 40 low D flute that didn't sound nearly as nice as the CPVC. I think the CPVC just sounds more like a wooden flute than the PVC, but that's just my opinion. My CPVC flute is darn nearly exactly the same in dimension as my Hall flute in D.

I've just been playing both flutes (Hall and CPVC flutes that is) and the major differences between the two are that the CPVC flute is less perfectly in tune on a few notes (but more than playably close - the tuning issue is obviously my fault) and it doesn't project as well. So, not good enough for a session or ensemble, but perfectly fine for what I made it for (travel, playing at lunch break, etc...).
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