Cooperman plastic fife review?
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:54 pm
Well I did something that some would say is stupid, I bought one of those Cooperman plastic fifes. Now before you laugh here are my reasons.
1) I am one of those people that needs a security blanket instrument with me at all times. (not that I play well enough to warrant such an obsession)
2) I ordered it before tipple started playing with the idea of making them.
3) If I played in front of one of my nephews, nieces, etc. and they showed an interest I was wondering if their was an in expensive starter that they could be given.
4) I wanted a fife I could take on flights/camping without worry about having inspectors refusing to let me on board, losing it, water damage, etc.
I ordered it from Fifeanddrum.com. about two to three months ago. Shipping and handling is (if I remember correctly) a flat $7.00. Almost the price of the fife itself , but I was ordering other things from them and decided that this would be the only chance I got. It arrived today. I received E-mail updates that my product was out of stock and that they were moving locations at the time. Not preferable, but understandable, and probably not usual.
The black plastic fife is shiny, and has brass end caps that had green water spots on them. My last travel fife (an all brass Mel bay that my wife refused to let me bring onto a plane because it looked too much like a pipe bomb) was covered with a finger nail polish type of stuff that kept it bright at the time of sale. But hey, this is going to be my “Beater” fife. So I ripped it out of the plastic bag and blew a few notes….
It whined, it sounded breathy, it could barely play 1 ½ octaves and I looked at the postage and wondered if it was even worth the postage! then I looked at the embouchure. The drilling process left a burr so I took out my pocketknife and smoothed out the rough parts (Something I would never do to a Healy, Sweet, or a Peeler!). All the sudden I could hit 2+ octaves. Then I looked at the fingering chart that came with the fife and found that I had been using a different fingering.
From there I found that it was an okay player (probably still better than me, sadly) and in tune to my ear. It has a round embouchure and therefore (in my humble opinion) allows less slop on where you blow than the Mel bay or a Healy’s rectangular embouchure (did I just put those two names in the same sentence?). It is a slightly wider bore than a Peeler “Firth and Pond” styled fife and so, for me, the low “D” (Bb) was easier to hit.
For an El Chepo, I would rank it higher than the Cooperman’s walnut tourist fife because that fife was designed to look real (although the one I saw had varnish drips that looked like a very bad paint job) but did not play any where in tune. I do not think that I was ripped off and I would not mind giving it to some one as a “starter” fife. I would get rid of the brass and just leave the whole thing black (Why worry about looks?) but that is just me.
My goodness am I long winded.
1) I am one of those people that needs a security blanket instrument with me at all times. (not that I play well enough to warrant such an obsession)
2) I ordered it before tipple started playing with the idea of making them.
3) If I played in front of one of my nephews, nieces, etc. and they showed an interest I was wondering if their was an in expensive starter that they could be given.
4) I wanted a fife I could take on flights/camping without worry about having inspectors refusing to let me on board, losing it, water damage, etc.
I ordered it from Fifeanddrum.com. about two to three months ago. Shipping and handling is (if I remember correctly) a flat $7.00. Almost the price of the fife itself , but I was ordering other things from them and decided that this would be the only chance I got. It arrived today. I received E-mail updates that my product was out of stock and that they were moving locations at the time. Not preferable, but understandable, and probably not usual.
The black plastic fife is shiny, and has brass end caps that had green water spots on them. My last travel fife (an all brass Mel bay that my wife refused to let me bring onto a plane because it looked too much like a pipe bomb) was covered with a finger nail polish type of stuff that kept it bright at the time of sale. But hey, this is going to be my “Beater” fife. So I ripped it out of the plastic bag and blew a few notes….
It whined, it sounded breathy, it could barely play 1 ½ octaves and I looked at the postage and wondered if it was even worth the postage! then I looked at the embouchure. The drilling process left a burr so I took out my pocketknife and smoothed out the rough parts (Something I would never do to a Healy, Sweet, or a Peeler!). All the sudden I could hit 2+ octaves. Then I looked at the fingering chart that came with the fife and found that I had been using a different fingering.
From there I found that it was an okay player (probably still better than me, sadly) and in tune to my ear. It has a round embouchure and therefore (in my humble opinion) allows less slop on where you blow than the Mel bay or a Healy’s rectangular embouchure (did I just put those two names in the same sentence?). It is a slightly wider bore than a Peeler “Firth and Pond” styled fife and so, for me, the low “D” (Bb) was easier to hit.
For an El Chepo, I would rank it higher than the Cooperman’s walnut tourist fife because that fife was designed to look real (although the one I saw had varnish drips that looked like a very bad paint job) but did not play any where in tune. I do not think that I was ripped off and I would not mind giving it to some one as a “starter” fife. I would get rid of the brass and just leave the whole thing black (Why worry about looks?) but that is just me.
My goodness am I long winded.