Chiff and Fipple Forums

Hello all,

Hate to bust into the thick of things without a formal introduction, but I assume (hope) extreme flute lust counts as extra points.

I've found my personal Grail (ebonite Radcliffe - yeah, I'm an odd duck) and after muchos e-mails, there's an agreement to send from Europe to the US.

Not having ever sent or sold instruments overseas, is there a cheaper way than the general on-iine post quotes I get of 125 euros and above for shipping to the West of the Wes.[/quote]

Depends on the insurance amount, probably. Other than that, flutes have been coming into the U.S. for around $10 by post. There are other services, certainly, including DHL, etc. for expresss services, and those probably include high fees for preparing commercial invoices and customs declarations, all of which can usually be done for free by the seller/shipper.

Kevin Krell

Postal service should be fine and much cheaper than what you have been quoted. If it is over 100 years old, be sure to have the sender write that on the customs declaration form , since antique instruments are exempt from the import duty.

Dave Copley
Loveland, Ohio

[Wow, my apologies - I really futzed that first one. No more posting for me when it's way past my bedtime!]

Thanks so much for the responses. I finally got a reply and the shipping will be far less than I had thought and it will be invoiced as an antique. Now that it's back in the realm of the affordable it's time to start working on those justifications. (other flute's falling apart, need it for gigs, can always sell that spare kidney... )

Thanks again everyone. Glad to be here.

~adrianne

Hey Adrianne...Welcome to the board!

You might want to search the archive there a good thread a wihile back on the merits of Ebonite.

Congratulations on finding "your" flute.

Byron

Yes, welcome Adrianne. It's nice to have somebody with peculiar tastes on board. All these people yammering on about Olwells, Byrnes, and R&Rs have become tedious...

What kind of gigs attract you to an ebonite Readcliffe system flute?

Cheers,
Aaron

What kind of gigs attract you to an ebonite Readcliffe system flute?

Well, the Radcliffe is a good compromise. I play Boehm and while the band plays mostly traditional stuff, it's often transposed into keys that just work better. From what I can remember from a foggy memory of flutes long past, the general difference from Boehm wasn't too much and the right hand switching of the F and F# certainly made lightning fast tunes in sharp keys more comfy. Some people call it cheating but hey, I can play a tune in E-flat minor and have been asked on one occasion "Can you play softer? I can't hear the bodhran."

As to the ebonite, I'm just weirdly fascinated by it. Not really by the famed no-cracking factor since I've seen clarinets that have well and truly warped beyond playability. I'm also quite allergic to anything other than african blackwood so that's a plus as well (yeah, I know about the sulfur/lead thing in the stuff but I'm willing to take my chances). Besides, who wouldn't want to be the first flutist on the block with an axe the color of pond scum?

Cheers,
~adrianne