I was wanting to get my flute repaired. I read in a forum a while ago about silver plateing and if you clean the plating often it will come off right? I did this with my gold-plated mouthpiece and now it is comming off. Can this be repaired? I hope so.

My next question is about my foot. I droped my flute and now my footjoint is a little crooked i was wondering if a repair person could fix this propblem.

Thanks for your time.
God bless

Hi Ben,
Don`t worry, it is all fixable.
The gold plated headjoint can be re-plated, or just taken off and have just a silver one. If you are not allergic to silver, I would obt just to have the rest of the gold taken off. It is going to come off more in time anyway.

Ben, most gold plating is VERY thin. It is also very soft, so it can be worn off quite easily in any area that is regularly rubbed.

Any good, properly-equiped technician can quickly straighten the foot. The bend is probably at the tenon, unless the soldering has failed where the tenon receiver is attached to the foot. If soldering is needed, that is also straight forward.

So i could get the gold taken off if i wanted? I really don`t need it so probaly i would like it taken off. or maybe just ask them about a new headjoint. I had this flute for about 7 months and so i have warranty still. Will it cover it? don`t know yet, but i will ask them.

The warranty for the cheapest instruments really works on the basis of REPLACEMENT if there is a problem. Then you will just get another 7 months before the same thing happens again. Anything else is not economical for the supplier.

I hope your instrument is a better one than this, in which case you could jump up and down about the thickness of the plating in an area that gets wear during use - not good enough. A good outcome would be to get the gold plating re-done, thick enough to last a reasonable time. However gold is not really a suitable plating material for anywhere that experiences wear. IMO lip plates should not be gold plated unless the player has a really good reason such as allergy to other metals. Plating does not improve the way a flute plays. If you must have gold here, it probably should be SOLID gold. My personal opinion is that these gold lip plates are more a fashion or status statement than anything else. They are VERY rarely seen in my country, where an instrument is possibly seen more as a piece of equipment.

Of course you could probably quickly remove all the gold by rubbing it with a BRASS polish such as Brasso. However the underlying silver may be just as thin.

Many manufacturers are skimping as much as they can now. You pay a lot more for every aspect of manufacture to be done thoroughly.

This is to Kev;

SO you are saying that my flute is cheap? The gold is probally comming off because i clean my flute too much and i use the flute polish to clean it. MY Jupiter is not cheap and cost more than $2000. If it was soild gold it wound`t look good. So you shound`t come up and post stuff that you don`t know the true facts about this.

Sorry for being so rude.

Ben, if you have a $2000 Jupiter flute (which still isn`t that much and not all that great) then why would you be playing on a inexpensive Gemeinhardt? The price tag on the flute does not always mean that it is of quality either.

Gemeinhardt flutes are not always noted for the best of quality.

"SO you are saying that my flute is cheap?"
No, Ben. I actually wrote that I hoped you flute was NOT one of the "cheap" ones. Actually when I wrote that I was not aware of what brand your flute was.

I also wrote to explain the vulnerability of gold plating - on ANY flute, because it is so soft, and almost always, so thin.

And Kara is quite correct. $2000 does not automatically say that a flute is good. It often means that the buyer was `ripped off`.

You choose a `good` flute by brand reputation (for any given category of flute), not by price.

Who said i was playing on a Gemeinhardt? I didn`t even say that i would be playing on that. Just b/c the price is not expensive for you guys older than 18. I on the other hand is trying to pay for this b/c my parents woundn`t let me play b/c they don`t like it. I am 15 working trying to pay for this. People give me compliaments saying that you tone is one of the best. They say theat it is you or your flute, or they say it is the combinations. I got my flute from one of the best music companys on the east side of the USA. so don`t give me all this $hit about me when you don`t know the facts like i said. Please don`t asume this. I am working so hard to show my family that i am commited on playing the flute and to raise the money as well. Plus Gemeinhardt stinks. Even if you tryed you wondn`t find my model # unless you know where to find it at.

Sorry Ben, I have no idea why I thought that you said you were playing on a Gemeinhardt. I must have jumped threads. My mistake.

So now you have us wondering, what model is it that you are talking about? Did you get it from Flute World? I know that they are one of the top sellers of flutes in the US.

It is really great that you were able to afford a $2000 Jupiter. ...and at your age! You must have worked hard for it.

If you are a gifted player, you can make a nickel plated garbage flute sound good, so don`t let anyone try to tell you it is your flute because it is YOU that makes it sound good. (Of course it always helps to have a nice flute.)

After many adjustments, I played Chaminades concerto on one of those no name brands off of ebay (not telling anyone) and my husband and a couple of colleges were shocked to find out after wards what flute it was.
It only goes to show you what I said earlier.

Perhaps you were being a little sensitive or you just misinterpreted the posts, but no one here was implying that your flute was junk.

I shouldn`t have said all those things to you guys. You are trying to help me and i am not paying attention. I got my flute from Music & Arts Center i don`t know if you guys have heard of it but thats where i got my flute from. My Model # 8000s