First Gig

Sylvester · Post by **Sylvester** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 2:43 am

Cathy Wilde wrote:Don't laugh ... I use Scotch tape on my cocus Eb because I'm a little allergic, and that's exactly what happens!

OK, actually ... DO laugh. Because it's hilarious -- good thing I don't have a beard.

How do you think I found the sticky stuff issue out...?

Heat is severe some months a year here and some flute players make use of this cheap device.

The point is that all tapes I find here and there are white or cream.

Investers should know the great market gap existing regarding cocus, blackwood, ebony and boxwood coloured adhesive tapes...the mob is lterally queing at the drugstores already for that product tailored to our needs...

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 2:54 am

Chiffed wrote:Has anyone else run into lighting techs who only think they're doing a good job when they're burning yer hide? Sometimes sweat is unavoidable.

Oh yes, all the time. Playing with lots of stage light is really cool but after such a gig I tend to long for a gloomy pub gig with no special stage light. Sometimes the heat is just unbearable. But that's just one of the small prices you pay for the art

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 8:19 am

Sylvester wrote:
Cathy Wilde wrote:Don't laugh ... I use Scotch tape on my cocus Eb because I'm a little allergic, and that's exactly what happens!

OK, actually ... DO laugh. Because it's hilarious -- good thing I don't have a beard.
How do you think I found the sticky stuff issue out...? Heat is severe some months a year here and some flute players make use of this cheap device.

The point is that all tapes I find here and there are white or cream.

Investers should know the great market gap existing regarding cocus, blackwood, ebony and boxwood coloured adhesive tapes...the mob is lterally queing at the drugstores already for that product tailored to our needs...

On the plus side, the Scotch brand Magic Tape is fairly clear so the cocus doesn't look bad, and it's a bit of a matte finish so you get a LITTLE traction ....

Hey. What about a little strip of something like chamois (that really fine deerskin people use to dry their cars with?) surrounded by Magic Tape? It wouldn't look great, but I bet it would work really well and dry quickly. Better yet, just stick the chamois strip on the leftover adhesive gunk from your last piece of tape!

Hmmmm. I'm going to think about this.

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 8:23 am

Cat, I gave you the answer on the previous page. You know you want one. You might even get a free Auld Biddie™ if you ask nicely!

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 9:07 am

Oh honey, don't you remember? My Flute Beard vaporized in the Unfortunate Footlight Incident (The chin burns are almost healed, BTW, though I'm still scraping residual plastic off my favorite gig shirt). And alas, FBC informed me that I was out of luck for a matching replacement as Matt Molloy just does not have sufficient tonsorial resources to collect enough for another. (They did offer me a Shamrock merkin, though

)

But speaking of enterprise, look! I think you three need to get together:

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=41359

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 9:19 am

Bah, the Pure Drop™ won't be the same since they banned smoking in the pubs in Ireland. It'd have to be the 1960s Pure Drop™ or nothing for me!

On a more serious note concerning the allergy, and leaving aside FluteBeards™, have you thought of latex or silicone tubing?

For example, if you can get hold of a pair of latex surgical gloves, cut off a finger from them, cut off the finger-tip of the excised 'finger' to make a simple tube, you should then be able to stretch that over the headjoint and the embouchure hole.

It'll be thin enough when stretched for the colour of the wood to show through (thusly making it practically 'invisible' to the casual observer), and then all you need to do is cut out a piece to uncover the embouchure hole plus a bit beyond the blowing edge thereof.

It'd also be thin enough not to affect playing in anyway, but would act as a barrier to protect against any wood allergy on the chin/lip area?

Plus, easily removed in the event you should decide that the Murray is in fact a McChud and elect to make a gift of it to my Museum of McChuds, which is in dire need of exhibits

Just a thought.

I suppose a condom would work too, if they make them small enough in diameter, but I wouldn't know about that.

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 11:30 am

Interesting (anent the glove idea).

(anent the other).

MikeC · Post by **MikeC** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 1:18 pm

Cathy Wilde wrote:
Sylvester wrote:
Cathy Wilde wrote:Don't laugh ... I use Scotch tape on my cocus Eb because I'm a little allergic, and that's exactly what happens!

OK, actually ... DO laugh. Because it's hilarious -- good thing I don't have a beard.
How do you think I found the sticky stuff issue out...? Heat is severe some months a year here and some flute players make use of this cheap device.

The point is that all tapes I find here and there are white or cream.

Investers should know the great market gap existing regarding cocus, blackwood, ebony and boxwood coloured adhesive tapes...the mob is lterally queing at the drugstores already for that product tailored to our needs...
On the plus side, the Scotch brand Magic Tape is fairly clear so the cocus doesn't look bad, and it's a bit of a matte finish so you get a LITTLE traction ....

Hey. What about a little strip of something like chamois (that really fine deerskin people use to dry their cars with?) surrounded by Magic Tape? It wouldn't look great, but I bet it would work really well and dry quickly. Better yet, just stick the chamois strip on the leftover adhesive gunk from your last piece of tape!

Hmmmm. I'm going to think about this.

There's a stuff called Moleskin I think it's a Dr. Shoal's product. It's used to ease blisters while hiking, it's smooth and fuzzy on one side and sticky on the other. It's made for skin so it probably wouldn't hurt (?!) but I don't know. It is pretty sticky stuff.

MC

Meadhbh · Post by **Meadhbh** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 8:41 pm

Scotch tape and Flute Beards and Moleskin...oh, my!!

I have often wondered how an etching at the mouthpiece would work. I know that an etched filigree on the mouthpiece/lip plate works well with keeping a silver concert flute from slipping, but has something like that ever been tried on an Irish flute? I recall a posting from the past where someone lightly sanded the lip area (on the flute...not his face

), but then there was the question of practicality vs. aesthetics.....

....hhmmmmm...pretty etching and no slips.....dreaming.....

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 9:13 pm

there are plates on some wooden flutes. Some people have alergies to various woods.

I searched the Dayton Miller collection for flute engraved lip plate and got 5 hits and 6 maybes...

Meadhbh · Post by **Meadhbh** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 9:37 pm

If you go to http://www.miyazawa.com/enhance.htm and scroll down, there is an example of ornamental engraving on the mouthpiece....I guess I was imagining that same technique used on the wood (or polymer) itself instead of adding an etched metal plate.

(I would have posted the pic, but the Miyazawa site wouldn't let me "lift" it.)

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 10:07 pm

Sylvester · Post by **Sylvester** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:31 am

The final solution might be a band of velcro tape glued to the flute. The other one, attached to your lip-chin area, as a sort of piercing...

...you can even free your hands off the flute...

Meadhbh · Post by **Meadhbh** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:09 am

Denny wrote:

OK OK....I'm still trying to get that all figured out

...I am now stepping away from the computer to go and do something successfully.....ummm, feed the dogs...

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:09 am

Ow, that looks painful to me!

I think I'm going to try MikeC's moleskin ideer; I've got an old cracked deKeyser keyless I use as a guinea pig for various mad experiments.

I'll let you know how it goes.