OMG! A Casey Burns Shakuhachi!!!!

[Thomaston]

Speaking as someone that desperately would love a nice flute but can't afford one, this picture is indeed painful to see.

[Casey Burns]

People can do anything to their instruments as they please. Its just some things are not covered under warranties! I imagine some of my flutes will end up in landfills, attics, garage sales, antique stores(where they will get covered in dust and dead flies), turned into lamps, etc. A few will get played.

I'm investigating an instrument new to me called an Accordina which is like a melodica but with C-system buttons (like on a button accordion). I dissected one last week (purchased from Tony Bingham in London) partly to get one nonfunctional reed working again but also to see how these are constructed, with an eye towards making some of these for local consumption. The reed now works and all the secrets of these things have been revealed to me. They are also fun to play. One can think of them as sort of a glorified Chromatic button harmonica. I need to do something instrument making-wise besides flutes and need a new challenge (don't worry - I'll still be making flutes as my primary purpose in life apparently). These things use Accordion reeds rather than harmonica reeds (those are used in the Melodica). So yesterday my friend Mick gave me his mom or grandmom's old piano accordion. The reed pans with reeds will be removed for raw material for my experiment, and the accordion carcass with all of its mother of toilet seat glory will spend its last days on our porch out in the rain decomposing as a sculpture, next to a recently bought Hippie era painted flower pot. Too bad these things weren't made from sheet iron, like a Model A Ford. A rusted old accordion with some flowers growing out the bellows would make a lovely sight!

Casey

[headwizer]

Ok, here's a 5 second clip of the Casey Burns shakuhachi:

burns_shak.mp3

[headwizer]

As i promised, links to the project articles:

Casey Burns Wood Flute - Shakuhachi Conversion

Flared-Mouthpiece Tipple PVC Flute -Shakuhachi Conversion

[ChrisCracknell]

So Casey,...

does doing this void your warranty?

Chris.

[Dale]

This is the closest I've ever come to deleting a thread because of some poorly defined principal of just....wrongness. The hacksaw picture made my insides all liquid. Someone stop this individual before me maims again. Casey Burns must be medicated not to be a murderous rage. Better man that I am, which i think has already been established.

[Matt_Paris]

The resulting thing is not looking that bad. But the bore is just... Wrong. And the embouchure is probably not at the right place anyway. Poor beast, It makes me want to buy it, to cuddle it and to replace its poor mutilated headjoint.

What I would have done:
- keep the original headjoint intact.
- make a shakuhachi headjoint entirely out of PVC, and adjust it to the body, with an accurate bore (i.e. cylindrical, without the ridiculous funnel just after the blowing edge).

Then I'd have a folk flute AND a frankenshak. For the same price or less, and with a saleable flute, if money is the issue. Totally doable with a hacksaw, sandpaper and Dremel.

This is something I actually COULD do with my 1827 Rudall & Rose.

But just as Casey said, you buy it, it's yours, you do with it whatever you want. Very fine person indeed. A guy who loves echinoderms can't be bad anyway.