I play the Bassoon and was wondering, some flutes are plated in Nickel and others in Silver. Some flutes have the option of either. Silver is a few dollars more. Is that because Silver is more expensive? Does Silver give a nicer tone? Which is better if I have the option? Now keep in mind that I just want to play around with the flute and teach myself. Nothing serious. I won`t be playing in any grups or anything. But if it matters, which should I get?

Play different flutes. You may find one brands silver head / plated body may sound better than another brand silver head / silver body.

I prefer solid silver for the tone and longevity. Should you ever get a ding in a plated flute you may not be able to repair it without severly damaging the plating of the flute.

My old main flute was a silver head / plated body and someone knocked it over in my Orchestra rehearsal. Got a dent in the body and the repair took off the silver plating leaving a copper eye sore.

Silver tarnishes greyish quite easily, but the tarnish is reasonably easy to remove.

Nickel resist tarnish, but does tarnish VERY easily in the presence of certain vapours, such as polyurethane fumes, and the odours given off by certain materials used to make instrument cases. Little seems to be known about the full range of causes, some of which are organic. Nickel tarnish is much more difficult to remove. It is a dull, off-white look that often feels rough, like very fine sand paper. IMHO it is considerably more unsightly than silver tarnish.

For sweaty fingers, most players find silver a lot less slippery.

High quality plating has reasonable resistance to `pitting` - tiny holes that feel rough like fine paper. It usually happens with the aid of the extra corrosive perspiration that some players have. This pitting is bad enough with silver, but because of the `galvanic action`, the base metal can become quite rough and eaten away with nickel plating.

Nickel plating is more WEAR resistant than silver, but this is not really an issue if the silver plating is done WELL. (Good plating involves more processes than poor plating, taking a lot longer to do, and is many times thicker.

Silver tarnishes to a smooth black in atmospheres where there are sulphur contaminants, eg sulphur dioxide from geothermal activity. Nickel resist this type of tarnish.

Nickel plating is a little cheaper to carry out. Seeing there is not usually any significant advantage over silver plating, manufacturers wanting to make a quality product usually use silver plating. They usually resort to nickel when they are pressured by market forces to offer a cheaper model. So the problem with most nickel plated flutes is that many other aspects of manufacture have been skimped also. These result in an instrument which is likely to be less reliable (because of issues like sloppy pivots) and poor in tone, because of less attention to the vital shaping of the head and embouchure hole.

I`m sorry, I really just need a simple answer. I will in no way be playing publically or in a band or orchestra. I am only messing around and teaching myself as a student. Simply, which do go for, Nickel or Silver.

Doesn`t matter then. I would recommend getting someone who plays the flute to try out whatever you were interested in getting so that it is at least in good playing condition.

Silver.

As I said, nickel is more likely to have a crappy tone and be crappy in a dozen other ways.

I thought that metal didn`t matter to you? Isn`t it just the way the flute is made that makes the difference. Maybe I misundertood, but isn`t that what a lot of your posts were about on piccolos?

I ment to say material, not metal. Sorry.

K.C., were you directing that question to me ar Arak(?), because I haven`t posted anything about material on a Piccolo Chat.

Arak may have said material doesn`t matter... but he should have added "when the flute costs +$1,500.

Problem with getting flutes in the low hundreds is that the build quality may be questionable. If you are not already an experienced flute player you may not be able to tell.

silver or silver plated not nickel plated

Mitchell, that question was to Arak. He was alway saying that it is the built of an instrument, not the material, so it suprised me a bit with his last statement.

KC, you have misunderstood. RE-read my last paragraph.

It is all the crappy OTHER issues of design and manufacture that are typically ASSOCIATED with the nickel plating that makes the flute crappy, not the nickel plating itself.

(I once played a customer`s nickel plated Hernals student flute that outshone most sterling silver flutes. They must have just fluked getting the other parameters right. The flute, like many others made by Hernals, had a severe corrosion problems, even to the extent of the `spud nuts` rotting away.)

Sorry about that Arak, I see now.
Good point.