It's time for a change......

[chas]

I agree with what Henke and Scheky and Loren and others have been saying. I have a few different ways to put it and possibly a little to add.

Can the process be more automated? Of course. Largely automated? sure, but equipment costs money. For machinery that will rough, bore, drill the toneholes, cut the embouchure, undercut everything, bore out the sockets, and add the rings, you might be looking at seven figures (certainly well into the six figures), plus lots of rent to house it and service contracts. PLUS you have to have someone qualified to run it. For anything but the most repetitive jobs (tapped hole arrays for example), most of the time of a CNC machine is setting up, even if the job is making a thousand flute bodies. Even on a manual machine, a machinist doesn't spend his time making sure he cuts just the right amount off in just the right place. He spends his time locating and fixturing the work so that he can take the right amount off in the right place without even thinking about it. So once a job is keyed into a CNC machine, most of the time is still spent locating and fixturing the work.

And a good machinist don't come cheap.

So while having everything automated may save time in the long run, I really doubt that at the sales levels we're talking about, the flutes would be any cheaper.

Several well-known flutemakers have a large degree of automation and their flutes aren't any cheaper.

I think Loren's model would work best -- have apprentices or technicians who make the flutes to the basic specs, then a highly skilled person who cuts the embouchure and fine tunes. Most flutemakers have at least one or two employees; I have no idea at what size that way of working would become unpleasant/boring/whatever due to repetitiveness, personality conflicts, etc. But if the Olwells and Murrays of the world really wanted to expand, they would. Maybe one key to their greatness is that they've found just the right way to turn out the absolute finest product and stay happy at the same time.

[Loren]

Stop making sense Charlie, you know that sort of talk has no place around here.



Loren

[Jack Bradshaw]

It's not flutes but I've just been through such an expansion...thank heaven it's almost over !

Maby I'll have time to practice again !

PS: Unfortunatly, it wasn't concrete flutes....

[brianormond]

-Sorry, Mr. Fandango:

- I haven't kissed any anatomy of my flute's maker, here or anywhere else. The one issue encountered early on was addressed with alacrity by the maker, more than can be said for problems with my last vehicle purchase.

-Fortunately, the flute wasn't built Friday afternoon or Monday morning by an assembly force
indifferent to quality. It was made, instead, by an individual whose abilities in design and execution combined to create a handsome instrument capable of all the richness and musicality wooden flutes can have. Beyond potential for tailfins, white sidewalls and annual model changes, I can't see what would be gained by commodifying the instrument beyond the scope of small manufacturers.

[chas]

Beyond potential for tailfins, white sidewalls and annual model changes, I can't see what would be gained by commodifying the instrument beyond the scope of small manufacturers.

So THAT's who modified Flatley's flute! And don't worry about him twirling it like a baton -- it has 5 mph bumpers and head, barrel, and foot airbags.

[Jon C.]

It's not flutes but I've just been through such an expansion...thank heaven it's almost over !

Maby I'll have time to practice again !

PS: Unfortunatly, it wasn't concrete flutes....

Jack! Are you going to put your concrete truck up for sale?
This is tragic, we will never know if a concrete flute sounds as good as cocus...

[Jack Bradshaw]

I'm more afraid that all the material may have turned to....well, concrete....

Got about another week or two of "volume", hand scraped production before I can try and get everything set up again.........

This project has realy been good for business though...evry time I set up I get bombed !!!

(Building an anechoic chamber also.....parts lying there anyway.....I want to rebuild my old resonator testing rig....after 40 years.....and try a few things)

[Dave Parkhurst]

No, the Chinese can't make a flute as well as these fellows... I've paid BIG money for a chinese flute and it was a piece of poo. Don't assume that just because the wait or price inconveniences you that it's not worth it. There's a reason that one must wait years for some of these instruments. And there's a reason that there is a *sticky* topic in each forum warning against chinese/pakistani instruments.

You wanna talk about waits? Order a set of narrow bore uilleanns by Wooff and then we'll talk about waiting periods... $10,000 and 7 years, if he'll let you on the list.

[beowulf573]

Anechoic chambers are fun, I used them back in the early nineties to test hard drive acoustic properties. Big fellas, almost 250 megabytes!

It can be a offputting to stand in the middle of one, have someone talk to you, and then start slowly turning in a circle.

[Cayden]

s.

You wanna talk about waits? Order a set of narrow bore uilleanns by Wooff and then we'll talk about waiting periods... $10,000 and 7 years, if he'll let you on the list.

As I hinted above, the list runs to 20 years these days if you don't manage to jump up anyway.

[andrew_w]

Coming from a recorder background, I share the fustration that you can't just go to your local music shop and buy an injection moulded plastic replica of some of the finest instruments ever made for £50 like you can for a recorder.

I suspect the market for folk flutes just isn't there to justify the tooling and production costs involved. Why is the Aulos Baroque flute > £200 when you can get a an Aulos Tenor recorder containing a similar amount of plastic and a key for only £50.

Perhaps we should be going out and convincing the music community that the folk flute is better instrument than the recorder and then we may have a big enough market. Before we do that though, we ought to add another hole so that we're no limited to tunes in D, G or C and then it would actually be a better instrument !

[jim stone]

What hole? Where? Curious.
Of course we already have more keys than the ones
you mentioned, e.g. A.

[Jack Bradshaw]

There was another example last year w/ the "Zaphoon" (I think that's the spelling)......high quality molding job.....

Gee Eddie....I guess you could stand on one of those giant drives......

This chamber is a lot bigger than my old one......about a meter cube...