EDit: I would say Gemeinhardt is a better brand then Yamaha when it comes to flutes. I have a professional Gemeinhardt flute and a professional Yamaha picc. The problem with Yamaha flutes is that they are tuned to a different pitch, but I would reccomend Gemeinhardt flutes over Yamaha. I`m not saying either one is better.

Oooh.. a PROFESSIONAL Gemeinhardt! I wish that I could have one!!! Lol!
I can`t beleive that they can even label a Gemeinhardt a professional flute. How funny! Please tell me what professional would ever play on a Gemeinhardt? The Yamaha student model sounds better, is built better and plays better than even if you had a Gemeinhardt made of platinum!

I own a Trevor James flute
It`s beautifully made, and plays
and sounds as good as it looks.
Don`t see this make mentioned
anywhere, perhaps its a well kept
secret.

Buy what you like.

Pity the "experts".

No, Trevor James is not "just a well-kept secret". It is a rather typical Taiwanese flute.

I am a very serious flute student and training to be a professional.I have done lots of reserch on flute brands and how well certian brands play.This is because i recently bought a new flute.I have personally played most brands of flutes.It really dosent matter what brand you have I have myself an armstrong model 104.This flute is by far the most durable flute i`ve ever seen.I also own a Geminhardt Kg special which is considered a professional flute.on your list i saw bolth these brands.My word to you is the better the flute the more fragile it is.This is simply because higher quality flutes are made of the metals silver and gold.Student flutes are made of nickle.Nickle is harder than bolth silver and gold.So it is apropriate for the beginner who dosent know how to care for their flute.Proffesional players take better care of their flutes so they can have the silver and gold which produce a better quality sound. The point the better the flute the more fragile it is so you have to handle it with more care.If you had troble with those brands you need to learn how to care for a flute.Just be wary of chineese brads because the are always of poor quality and most stores won`t fix them.By the way the flute is the highest maintence insrument secound only to the piccolo.

You people are crazy.let me clue you in.Some of the best flutes in the world are handmade.This means no 2 are alike.A lot of the top brand have to be fixed directly by the company.Just because you have to fix you flue dosent mean its a bad brand.it means 1 you take poor care of it 2 its normal wear and tear .FOR EXAMPLE I REPLACED MY PADS ON MY GEMINHARDT TWICE IN 6 MONUTHS.ALL PADS ON ALL FLUTES ARE TRHE SAME. i HAD TO DO THIS BECAUSE OF RAIN DURING MARCHING BAND.HELLO THE PADS SWELL WHEN WET.IF YOUR IN MARCHING BAND YOU HAVE TO FIX YOUR INSRUMENT TWICE AS OFTEN BECAUSE FLUTES DON`T HANDLE WEATHER VERY WELL. If you had troble with top quality flutes you need to examine how you handle your instument

I dont know kind of flutes you all have but i personall can`t afford a 100,000 dollar flute like most profeionals have.For now my solid silver Geminhardt will do just fine.My dream flute is a goled plated muramatsu. list price 60,000 dollars.Kara i don`t know you and don`t want to make you mad but i would like tell you that geminhardt does have a profesional line of flutes.they are made of silver and gold like a true profesional flute but are not truely a profesional flute.Why because if you will look at a flute you will see tiny screws that hold it together.A true pro flute dose`nt have these screws.therefor only the flutes maker can fix it.Why laugh at me because have my geminhardt is only considered a semi profesional flute.I`m not a profesional.I`m in high school. When Reach pro level i will spend 60,000 dollars on a flute.For know a top of the line student flute will do just fine.For i am a student Who dream to be a profesional.

Ashley wrote some good things, but also some rather rash and unjustified statements....

Ashley wrote "...I have myself an Armstrong model 104.This flute is by far the most durable flute I`ve ever seen...."

IMO you would need to be a technician to evaluate `durability`. You don`t know how durable an material or item is until you actually bend (or break)it, and also know how it performs relative to other similar items, over MANY years. I know how durable a certain flute body is when I attempt to remove dents. I know how durable the keys are when I attempt to straighten them, or improve their alignment over tone holes.

Ashley wrote"...My word to you is the better the flute the more fragile it is...."

I have the experience to say, based on the above, that at lest certain models of professional Powell flutes are extraordinarily durable. So much so that I do not like working on them.

Ashley wrote"...Student flutes are made of nickle.Nickle is harder than both silver and gold...."

No, they are not made of nickel. They are made of cupro-nickel alloys, which are approx 70-80% copper. Some of these alloys, especially if the keys are case, are very soft indeed, as is common in Taiwanese and Chinese instruments. On the other hand, if silver or gold the keys are cold forged, then they are amazingly strong. Powell adds to the strength of keys a whole lot more (at least in some models) by the amount of metal in their construction. Yes, pure gold is a very soft metal, but flutes are not made from pure gold. The gold is alloyed to make quite a hard product. Think about gold crowns on teeth!... They are extraordinarily durable.

The strength of metals that are copper, silver, or gold-based depends hugely on how much `working` the metal gets during construction. If these metals are heated red hot, they ALL get quite soft - `annealed`. So it is not so much what metal is used for the keys, but the processes that went on in making those keys.

Ashley wrote "...silver and gold which produce a better quality sound...."

There is far too much very-well researched evidence against that statement that it really cannot be made validly. If you do make it, then you should present robust research articles to back it up. The issue has been well discussed (and irrationally mocked!) elsewhere in this forum. See the thread "Coltmans Research -Deceptions in the Player`s Mind"

Ashley wrote "..The point the better the flute the more fragile it is so you have to handle it with more care...."
In my experience, the only sense in which a good flute is more fragile is ....

On `good` flutes the manufacturer tends to use harder pads. `Poor` flutes need more squishy pads to accommodate all the irregularities in non-level tone holes, sloppy pivots, uneven pad thickness, etc. Hard pads need far more accurate alignment with tone holes in order to seal well. This precision alignment must be maintained for reliability. For such flutes, manufacturers tend to push the boundaries a bit, so that the minutest change in a pivot, pad thickness (from humidity), thickness of linkage material, etc, upsets the performance of the flute. This is nothing to do with bending metal, or knocks. It is to do with a precarious original set-up.

Continuing, there is far too much nonsense in Ashley`s last post to go unchallenged...

"...geminhardt does have a professional line of flutes.they are made of silver and gold like a true professional flute but are not truly a professional flute...."

Any crappy manufacturer of flutes can label their flute "professional", and many Chinese manufacturers do this. But that is a lie unless professional players choose them to play. A professional flute is not identified specifically by its screws or anything else, other than significant numbers of top players regard the as good enough to play professionally. I am not saying Gemeinhardt is crappy, but it is seldom the choice of a capable, professional player!

"...Why because if you will look at a flute you will see tiny screws that hold it together.A true pro flute dose`nt have these screws..."

Not true! EVERY, yes EVERY flute has screws to hold the keys on. What you are referring to is adjusting (`regulating`) screws.

First, lack of these are NOT a sign of a really well made instrument. They are a sign of a manufacturer putting engineering common-sense aside, and obliging some stupid old tradition that players perpetuate, that top flutes don`t have these adjusters.

Think about it... This all started because modern flute making grew out of silver-smithing. Now this trade is to do with making beautiful things, and has almost nothing to do with sound engineering. That is why the lack of adjusters.

However a flute is an item of high-precision engineering that NEEDS adjustment in linkages. I know of no other field of precision engineering with these requirements, where a type of reliable screw adjustment is not provided. To NOT have the adjusting screws just means that one of these adjustments takes several hundred times longer to carry out. This is the reason that such flutes are more expensive - not because they are any better!

"...A true pro flute dose`nt have these screws.therefor only the flutes maker can fix it..."

That is simply false and an insult to hundreds if not thousands of good technicians.

Good technicians regularly do top quality work on flutes without adjusting screws. Very few players send their instrument back to the factory for servicing. In some senses, servicing is rather different from manufacturing, and there is little reason to believe that servicing is done better in a factory, even if that factory is a top manufacturer.

"...I`m in high school...."

I`m glad you said that. May I suggest that you ease off little in assertively writing as you are an experienced expert in everything pertaining to the mechanical complexities of flutes. Wait until you have the experience and expertise before you write so dogmatically. It is very misleading for people coming to a forum to seek truth.

It is important to know how much you DON`T know before you yell the things that you THINK you know.

No hard feelings, and best wishes in your journey of knowledge discovery.

brands snotjello 18:47 on Tuesday, July 05, 2005 wrote
"Buy what you like. Pity the "experts"."

You know you`re exactly right! I haven`t been here in a while and what is all this mayhem? I`m sick of arguing over brands. I trust NO ONE anymore. I guess best you can do is try the flutes out as allways and make sure it has at least a 1 year warentee and make sure a lesson teacher familiar with mechanics (if you can find one!) or your band teacher (well you need someone to look at if) make sure it`s functioning alright. Go with what you are willing to spend as well. The more money sometimes better quality flute but not allways. Allways try it out first and take all these posts in consideration but never absolute. I guess we flutist`s are arogent snoby divas at times or when anyone questions our choice in flutes! Quite honestly this subject allways comes up and I admit i`m wrapped right into it but it`s everyone attacking one another. The op I didn`t find nasty just stating an opinion but calling the op crazy for that? Come on how does that support your argument. What it just did was make myself and others confused with what to believe.

I`ve played on my Gemeinhardt 3SB flute for a number of years now. Since I have owned it has had a severe dent in the headjoint and minor dents in the body. Because this flute is solid silver all those problems were easily repaired. I also have yet to have this flute ever go out of adjustment of its own accord and in I believe 7 years now it has only seen a repair man twice.

This is an $800 flute and it has been worth far more for me.

The mere addition of a professional head joint to this flute increases its overall response, tone, and dynamic range dramatically. It`s quite shocking after playing on a professional headjoint to switch back to the Gemeinhardt headjoint. The flutes potential becomes realized it is AMAZING how much the headjoint makes a flute.

This flute is a Gemeinhardt flute.

Quite frankly brand names do not matter. A first flute is a first flute. Once one has the flute under their belt they can go out and choose their next flute by playing personally, not by assuming some brand is *best* and not realizing their playing substandard crap.

I have been hunting for a cheap backup flute lately and I decided to try the fabled icon of student quality, the Yamaha 211. I tried out two Yamaha 211`s, a Gemeinhardt 2SP, and a Buffet Crampton 228. I took the Buffet Crampton home... and quite frankly had I not replaced the headjoint on my Gemeinhardt the Buffet could have become my new main flute.

So always try before you buy

"...Because this flute is solid silver all those problems were easily repaired. ..."

Well.... Not really.

Yes, dents are quite easily removed, often taking only a few seconds each, but this is on ANY flute, so it is not "because" the flute is solid silver.

In fact, the solid silver tubes are often so springy that dents are far more DIFFICULT to remove.

Ever since I had a dent removed from a silver plate Armstrong flute and had raw copper area exposed on the body the size of my thumb just a short time after purchasing the new flute I decided that I would avoid getting a silver plated flute again.

The repair of a major dent the headjoint my solid silver flute left no marks of damage at all and any little dings or scratches that were on the body were removed without sign of wear.

Almost daily I take dents out of plated instrumnets with ZERO damage to the plating.

If the Armstrong plating wore through to the copper colour in such a short time, that is a judgment on Armstrongs production standards, no on silver plating itself.

Silver plating can be REALLY crapy, to very robust (as on top EPNS cutlery), and everything in between.

There are brands of woodwind wher the silver plating lasts a very, very long time, because it was very well done, not just a decorative finish to sell this instrument!

Note that the silver plating has very quickly worn off Bufffet clarinet keys in recent years, at last for some models. And I have seen Miyazawa flutes that once were plated and large areas have worn off.