Professional Custom Flutes

Jonathon Jr. writes this about his lifetime love-hate relationship with the flute...

Well, I was born in 1982, about the time that most of you were graduating from conservatory. By the time you were figuring out what a 2% APR was doing to your school loan budget I was firmly planted in a highchair, figuring out that graham crackers tasted best soggified with 2% milk.

And in 1982, hang it all, you probably knew how to play the flute. Lucky you.

But see, I had this guy who was, like, my dad, and, like, by the time my best friend taught me that "like" was, like, the best expletive ever, I was also in front of a 2-ton press with my shirt off, punching out shiny silver blanks that are now the keys you have on your Landell. (You do play a Landell, don't you?) Yes, your flute was made with child sweatshop labor, and not in Singapore either.

As it turned out, this guy I called "Papa" (and still do) wasn't just the inventor of graham crackers and milk. He didn't just invent peanut butter and bananas either. This guy was also one of the best living flutemakers in the world. This I learned, not from him, but from all these crazy people "shpeeking een cherman akksants" who came through wanting to play these crazy flutes - it was obvious what they thought of him. I just liked flutes because for every hour that I punched silver he'd give me $5, which was a zillion times better than mowing the lawn for $3.

As I grew, I did move into the shop more. I was
homeschooled, so in the afternoons I'd go work with
Papa (and make some money), but the story is actually
kind of anticlimactic... I thought flutemaking was pretty
boring. It was OK, but as I got older my thoughts
wandered...knifemaking, catapults, sights for my .22,
parts for my bicycle, that's all the use I found for the
shop. My dad wisely let me do my thing, let me
experiment with his expensive equipment, let me break
tools and saw up metal... he knew that experimentation
was the mother of innovation, and innovation was the
mother of all flutemakers. So he let me go. Oh, I also
didn't want to play flute - I liked piano better.

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