Hi, I was wondering if I could get some opinions about Altus silver flutes. I bought my Altus about 4 years ago, and at the time was too young (and immature...) to compare the tone quality and etc of different flutes. Right now it seems to be giving me a few problems with my playing. The low C for example..I`ve always had trouble with, but I`m actually finding it easier to play the low C on my previous student flute (a pretty terrible Buffet).
Also, I`ve heard that Altus don`t make very good headjoints in terms of projection, and I`ve been constantly told time and again in orchestra`s to play out more.
Just wanted to clarify this, because it probably is a problem with my playing and not the flute, but it`s getting quite frustrating continually trying to practice.

Thanks

If it`s just one note you`re having problems with, could it be that your flute needs adjusted? It might be as well to ask a technician to have a look and let you know.

I have played an altus flute which was amazing, in every way. I have also worked on a few which were very disappointing, and fussy to play.

Because of hard pads in conjunction with rolled tone holes that had been filed to have a large, flat surface in contact with the pads, IMO the last Altus I serviced would always be very difficult to adjust to play easily and reliably. Changing to soft pads may help but only a little.

This flute would always need higher-than-normal finger pressure in ofrder to make the pads seal. This issue seriously affects the low notes I am quite sure that it was Altus who did this to the tone hole edges.

To me , this was really sub-standard for a supposedly good brand. Strangely coincidentally, I met precisle the same problem recently with a Takumi flute. The two were so similar I wondered if they had come from the same factory. I have not met this problem ever before, in seeing thousands of flutes.

Sorry about the errors. I hit `submit` too soon! I wish this site had an `edit` facility for times like this.

Liz, I would send your flute out to a good repair tech to look at. If you are in the US, I know that JL Smith is great.

If projection is what you need, may I recommend a headjoint?
Powell makes some of the most projective headjoints that I have tried.

I have found the Altus flutes to be built pretty well. I can`t say that I have ever been really impressed with the sound, though. Just my opinion.

I service mostly beginner to intermediate level flutes, so I am sure that Arak would know more about them.