The Flute Portal Forums > Drone.. I Want To Build One

Terry Lakota

Feb 5 2008, 04:34 PM

Super Tuesday winner is FLUTE!!!!
I would like to give a shotgun style “side by side drone” a go. I am not ready to try adding thumbholes because I need to try to understand the basics first. What is the key that works in a pleasing manner? I have stock that will work for ¾ bore so I could make smaller bores instead. Without going to the woodpile the keys are G4 and higher. Any ideas and words of wisdom will be appreciated.
If bigger bores are better that is okay too....
Thanks
Terry

Geoffrey

Feb 5 2008, 06:41 PM

If you have stock for 3/4" bore, I'd try something A or higher. You can make a G with a 3/4 bore, but I think for a drone it will behave itself a bit better if you used 7/8 or bigger. I use 3/4 for my B flat, B, C and C# tunings.

Advice: make sure you tune the separate barrels so that the fundamental note and the octave note are really tight with the drone barrel. Example: If you are making an A, and the drone barrel is going to play nothing but the A note, you want your melody barrel to match it perfectly on the lowest note (A) and on the A in the next octave. When they are not in perfect tune, you really hear it. The other notes can be less than perfect and they will still sound good with the drone barrel, but when the flute is playing the same note on each barrel you get "phasing", where you can hear the dissonance between the barrels. Some people like this. I'm not one of them

Take the extra time to make them perfect.

Terry Lakota

Feb 6 2008, 03:31 PM

QUOTE(Geoffrey @ Feb 5 2008, 06:41 PM)

If you have stock for 3/4" bore, I'd try something A or higher. You can make a G with a 3/4 bore, but I think for a drone it will behave itself a bit better if you used 7/8 or bigger. I use 3/4 for my B flat, B, C and C# tunings.

Advice: make sure you tune the separate barrels so that the fundamental note and the octave note are really tight with the drone barrel. Example: If you are making an A, and the drone barrel is going to play nothing but the A note, you want your melody barrel to match it perfectly on the lowest note (A) and on the A in the next octave. When they are not in perfect tune, you really hear it. The other notes can be less than perfect and they will still sound good with the drone barrel, but when the flute is playing the same note on each barrel you get "phasing", where you can hear the dissonance between the barrels. Some people like this. I'm not one of them

Take the extra time to make them perfect.

There must be something about drones that would have a larger bore than regulars flutes. What happens to create a difference? Is it joined harmonics or some other factor? This info is going in my work folder as a keeper.
Thanks...
Any others out here that want to jump in? Water is fine...

Terry Lakota

Feb 10 2008, 02:41 PM

QUOTE(Geoffrey @ Feb 5 2008, 06:41 PM)

If you have stock for 3/4" bore, I'd try something A or higher. You can make a G with a 3/4 bore, but I think for a drone it will behave itself a bit better if you used 7/8 or bigger. I use 3/4 for my B flat, B, C and C# tunings.

So far so good I managed to route the blank exactly right... shocked me!! It is now past glue-up and I have shaped it close to what I want and it looks okay. I made the steel wool buffer and really cleaned the bores, wiped them out and gave them a second coat of tung oil. When that is totally dry I'll start working the TSH and SAC openings. My blank is short so getting a Bb will be close I may try B or C, not sure yet but this project is coming nicely.
Thanks for the input.
Terry

Geoffrey

Feb 10 2008, 03:05 PM

Sounds good Terry! Let us know how it turns out, eh?