Thanks, Mysticalwaters1. Mine are the same around food. Lillian (one of the twins) stole a french fry right off my plate yesterday.

In either case... since there is a Scotch that actively talks here that picture is really in bad taste.


Scotch: drink
Scot: Person from Scotland.

Kara I didn't have a bad experience with him necessarily, and had nothing to do with any of his sales or repairs, but he likes to show off, and though he can play a lot of fast notes, the style of the music suffers. And he's playing one of those "jacked up" winged headjoints that's engineered to play itself. I could barely get any volume with it and no chance of having a full, fat sound at all. Thats the trouble with those...they sound okay when you're a foot away, and it's good if you like to hear yourself play in a big empty echoey room, but it would never fill a hall or come through an orchestra.

Don't get me wrong, those heads are good for some people who have problems with producing tone or doublers but I think for someone who has a good tone of their own, it only hinders it. Though, I think we all at times might suffer from wanting to play with that crisp biting sound because to us, with the flute right next to our head it sounds great...but to an outsider or in a recording, we sound bitten off and small. A lot of times when I am trying to have a rounder fatter more open sound, I hear it and think my sound is dull and breathy, I play back a recording of a passage and it's a full colorful sound with that touch of bite. Sometimes instead, we put the bite first and the sound second. It's amazing how different the flute sounds to the listener compared to the player, eh?

So, Besides nearly getting struck by lightning outside the subway on the way to his place, (literally...struck just 20 feet away or so...thought I was going to lose my sight) We played some duets and he had to try to take things at faster than necessary speeds, and there was a rather difficult to sight read passage with 32nd notes reading out of a piano score no less, he was like, "It's actually very easy". Well, not to sight read up to tempo while sharing a stand and reading out of a piano accompaniment score.

I didn't get a good feeling about him but mainly because of that kind of attitude, but as for claims of him doing bad business, I know nothing. I thought it was odd he didn't offer to show me any of the flutes he had for sale. I love to play duets a ton...for fun and exercise, with players of any level. I didn't have fun. For him it was a contest or a way to feel like a superior player. Weird vibes....

jrbrook, just curious, are you in NYC?? or did you come here to try his flutes?