OMG! A Casey Burns Shakuhachi!!!!

[headwizer]

A visitor to my website saw my article about the Tipple Shakuhachi Conversion and asked for a wood flute version. Unlike the Tipple PVC, mopane is VERY hard to shape. I didn't want to mess up, so I cut off the cork end, beveled the thick flute wall to a barely there 1mm. Then I designed a shakuhachi head for it from a 1-inch PVC coupler (cost me 30 cents). Very nice!!!!

Casey has said that he had a large fanbase in Japan, where the shak still rules. I think if he were to add a shak to his line, it could be a great success for him. I'm the PROUD owner of a mopane Shakuhachi, possible the ONLY mopane shakuhachi in the world (I can't find another on the internet).

[Casey Burns]

Send me measurements!

This is pretty clever. It might look better with Alternative Ivory, Blackwood or Mopane. But if it works, why not!

The next step is to design a windway that works with the Shakuhachi embouchure - and then one would have a low whistle.

If any other Folk Flute owners would like to try this but not want to destroy your head joint (not to mention void the warranty!) - I occasionally have rejected and factory second head joints that otherwise end up as firewood in the winter. Contact me if interested. Together we could crowdsource a design....

Delighted,
Casey

[Doug_Tipple]

Casey, I like your word "crowdsource". My only comment has to do with the bottom photo, where you can look down the headjoint. I see that the tuning cork is still in place. Let me suggest that the shak would play better without the tuning cork, which is not a revolutionary concept.

Of course, I am just looking for a lame way to amuse myself.

[headwizer]

Hi Casey, hi Doug,

Doug, ask and ye shall receive. Here are pics of the slicing off the cork. I've got tons of pics and will cull them for a post about how to do the project.

I'm busy at the moment, but will post more later. Casey, I'll have measurements soon.

[david_h]

Would another option be to make a coupler for a length of that PVC pipe that Doug uses, onto the body section ? ID is only a mm or so greater and something could be inserted to bring it down.

[Casey Burns]

There is something metaphorically horrifying about that last picture. Also, a hacksaw? A bandsaw leaves a nicer cut as well as a jeweler's saw. But a hacksaw????!!!???

Next, I want to see someone do this to their 8 keyed Wilkes that they waited 10 years for!

Casey

[Tonehole]

Headwizer -

have you recorded a clip on it yet?

Never played a shakuhachi with so many tone holes

[headwizer]

Ok, here are two new pics. I shortened the folk flute adapter to keep the flute in tune better. The blade is wider than before, but more "chiffy" sounding.

Doug, I've modified the headjoint of the Tipple-Shak too. The top of the tube has been thinned out, so that it's more comfortable to play, and the increased volume of air in the headjoint lets me push the tenon back in by 1/4 inch or so. AND IT'S MORE SOLIDLY IN TUNE than before. Yea!! The wider and deeper blade requires a more rounded embouchure.

Casey, the PVC does age and yellows slightly, looking more like alternative ivory. A hacksaw and Dremel are all I have. For that cut, the hacksaw was the expedient choice.

David_h, a coupler could also work for a pvc body. I would bevel the top of the tube to reduce turbulence in the air flow. However, if you're going to make a pvc shak, I would consider shaping the blow edge into the flute body, rather than add a coupler.

Tonehole, I have a clip up for the original Tipple shak. I have a basic audio setup and I don't think a new clip would really do the mod justice.

[Doug_Tipple]

When I first saw the photo of Casey's beautiful mopane flute with a roughly disected headjoint, I had the same thought as Casey. Actually, I thought that I must be watching an episode of "Criminal Minds" that my wife is so fond of, as there is a limit to artistic alteration. If you would have asked me, I would not have recommend that you convert a perfectly good Irish flute into a Frankenshak. Of course, it is not my flute, and it is likewise none of my business.

However, for what it's worth, there is a way of using a hacksaw to make a nice cut. It requires marking the cutting line all around what you are cutting and then rotating the stock while you cut only on the top. I've made a lot of pvc flutes using this method. I now use a miter saw with a 200 tooth blade, which makes a really smooth cut, on pvc pipe anyway.

[headwizer]

Sadly, I am poor and do not live in a home with a workshop. As for the episode of "criminal mind", I would suggest more an episode of "macgyver". A budding flutemaker has to learn somewhere, somehow. This was my first time using a hacksaw on this type of wood. Could I have used a better saw? Maybe. Could I have afforded to buy one? No. Could I have taken lessons? No one near me teaches shop. The rough cut wasn't important to me, however, because I knew I was going to sand it down. I think the sanding turned out ok.

Casey sells these flutes as beginner flutes. He says so on his website and he has sold thousands of them. I purchased this used flute for $200, about the same price as a new one. I wanted a shakuhachi and I wanted to learn how to make one. It all started when the flute I bought from you broke during a move, and I converted it. Then I got the bug and I converted more.

I have heard of flute teachers, who when I student is not playing well or in tune, will take a saw to a flute costing thousands and literally hack off a section. You learn a lot by taking things apart. With every flute I remake, I learn something new.

Why do I bother with flutes and flutemaking when I am too poor? Because for me, it's a religious thing.

[MeMyselfandI]

I purchased this used flute for $200, about the same price as a new one.

Since when!?!? I thought the price new was $375!

[Doug_Tipple]

I have heard of flute teachers, who when I student is not playing well or in tune, will take a saw to a flute costing thousands and literally hack off a section. You learn a lot by taking things apart.

This sounds more like a Zen koan than a matter of fact. When a student is not playing well, a good teacher would work with the student to improve their technique (embouchure, etc.) and would not destroy an expensive flute. That would be ridiculous.

[Casey Burns]

I was just kidding about the Hacksaw. You should see some of the tools that I use sometimes!

Still it is a little disturbing on some levels to see one's artistic work altered by someone else. Hopefully others won't rush to try this, though if they want to, contact me for a seconds head joint.

On the other hand, this has inspired me to consider using the painting pictured on the right in this article as my new logo:
http://mashable.com/2012/08/23/fresco-p ... -reaction/

A little bit on the price history of the Folk Flutes. When I introduced these as a 2 piece Mopane instrument in about 2003, the retail price was $250. My supplier ran out of the wonderful Mopane used on these and so I started making them in blackwood and boxwood. Eventually I raised the price to $375 which is where I am holding them now. Should our dollar succumb to too much money printing by the Fed (it will eventually) I may have to raise my prices more - but for now its holding. Occasionally I have sold factory seconds for $250. However, I am using much better cuts of blackwood when possible so that I do not generate any factory second parts. The last batch to get shipped out didn't generate any rejected parts.

Am off to get more blackwood today!

Casey

[headwizer]

>> When I introduced these as a 2 piece Mopane instrument in about 2003, the retail price was $250.

Casey, how funny that you should mention the year 2003 and mopane. The attraction of getting a flute of mopane was first put in my head when I read a novel called "The Fury And The Power" by John Farris. In that novel, mopane wood is said to have great mystical powers. I thought to myself, "Well, that's gotta be a good wood for me." That novel was published in 2003. It was not a very good story, but here are quotes from the "The Fury And The Power" and from "Avenging Fury" - the sequel, which I never read - with passages specifically about mopane wood:

"I was raised to hunt." Tom stopped and lifted his walking stick above his head, intently regarding the lion's head.

"What are you doing?"

"I usually can sense when an animal is behind me, even if its lurking in tall grass. But to detect the supernatural, I need supernatural help."
....
"Thanks, I don't want to - " Courtney stopped as if her throat had frozen shut. The gold lion's head was turning on the knuckly shaft, eyes and mouth open. Gold eyeballs and gold fangs, of course.

"How'd you do that?" she croaked?

"It's not my volition. Mopane wood from time out of mind had special spiritual qualities. As for the head of Simba, it was empowered by someone very dear to me, for my protection...."

The Fury And The Power, p. 312.

Both the lion's head and the mopane wood had spiritual and supernatural qualities, which she didn't attempt to explain to Cody. She had tried for a few larky moments, to imagine what his reaction would be...if she described one use the stick had been put to a few days ago at the Apostolie Palace in the Vatican. Oh sure,. Maybe in their sunset years side by side in rockers at the old-folks home - "Cody dear, did I ever mention the time I killed some demons and saved the Pope's life?"

Avenging Fury, p. 97.

LOL at my gullibility.

[Gabriel]

It really hurts to see the hacksaw pic. I'm not sure how I'd feel if somebody did this to one of my flute's headjoint, in which I invested hours to make and fine-tune. Asking the maker for an opinion before doing the conversion surely doesn't harm...and doesn't cost a penny.