By the way. When I said that I agreed with you, Bob, I should have been more specific. A student should feel comfortable with his flute and should be respected in his choices and possiblities. But I don`t see any elitism neither in answering to someone who wants to know which flutes are good, nor in exchanging opinions regarding professional flutes.

What`s the problem about knowing that there are better flutes out there? That`s reality. There shouldn`t be a problem to acknowledge reality.

Also, many people (including me) have asked pretty amateur questions in this forum and someone always answered them. How is that elitist?

I also agree with the original poster`s point, in that someone shouldn`t feel like their flute is getting slammed.

However, I think that the experienced posters on this forum offer good information. It is possible to sift through facts and opinion to gather needed information.

I have been posting here a long time. I do not have a professional flute. (I do get paid to play my flute, and probably have more years playing than nearly anyone else that posts here.)
I also don`t go around YELLING about "this,or that, flute sucks"! or "THE ONLY good flute is such and such".
When I see those type of statements, I assume they arise from a limited person.

I do see that most of the time the long-time posters (and you know who you all are), generally are trying to give others the benefit of their experiences. I do not think that anyone here has as much experience with my flute as I do (35 years), so I know it the best. I`m not going to get sniffly about someone saying my instrument is "junk" when the scales are tipped to my side!!

I have seen evidence that relatively inexperienced players are being gently encouraged about the apparent quality of their flutes. Nobody is going around saying that everyone needs to be playing on $10,000+ flutes. I see a lot of recommendations for entry level student flutes.

You should not be waiving that statement around to support your opinions as having more weight than others...

Stop reading into things, please! I did not mean it that way at all. I simply meant that since Micron and I repair flutes, we talk about different brands a lot on here.

I understand that you may be still upset with me because of the whole Gemeinhardt issue, but I thought we were past that. I guess not...

I was just looking at the statement that you repair flutes...

Your skill in flute repair is not something you have brought about till lately in discussion of brand quality and you have done so in such a way to give weight to your statements, whether or not intentional.

I do not dislike you at all. I just find it a little disquieting. I certainly do not want to call you on it like in that past thread.

I just don`t think you should make that reference in discussion unless you were in fact speaking about an actual repair experience otherwise you really are just adding title to yourself.

People don`t generally add title to themselves, it looks presumptuous, even though you may not intend it.

I don`t want any kind of title to my name. It is just Kara, thanks.
I do let people know my back ground that may not know me, so they know where I am coming from. I guess that I will have to stop sharing any personal infomation, not give advice and get a music degree.

I would like to back up what micron said. I don`t think that they are being slammed, it is the way people choose to take it that way. How do we know what brand everyone plays on in this forum before speaking up about a certain brand. People are too sensitive.

A repair-person would have more weight in a discussion about flute brands even if they themselves don't play flute simply because they have the opportunity to take note of which brands frequent their shop. If a particular brand is brought in for work more than others, then it says something about the craftsmanship and quality offered by the company.

Fauna,
This is a good point about using a repair person's recommendation about construction quality if the repair person is of gppd quality and reputation and isn't actually trying to sell a flute. It is one aspect of flute playing that should be seriously considered but since they are more often skilled in repairing all types of instruments and they spend their day repairing them and not really playing very much. More frequently they don't know some of the fine points about tone and tuning because it is less of importance to them and because they aren't as skilled in tone production as a good flutist.
Not that I'm slamming repair techs. Some are very superior players.
A good flutist can go through dozens of top pro flutes and tell you their opinions rather quickly on which ones are crap and which ones play good and which ones are magical. Of course more often than not comments about flutes from "Experts" in either field can be biased.

~Bilbo
N.E. Ohio

Let's face it friends, flute technicians are, for good reason, opinionated about flutes, they work on them all day long and see the good the bad and the ugly. but at the end of the day, we will play what we feel comfortable with and what sounds and feels good to us as individuals.

one more thought about flute brands, the only member of the audience that ever came up to me after a concert or show or recording and asked what kind of flute I played was a fellow "flutist"

that's the point, it seems only flute players care what you are playing on, the average Joe doesn't care, he just likes the way you sound

In my experience the average Joe doesn't even know that you're playing is a flute and probably doesn't know that there are many brands and models of flutes.

For example, a few nights ago I was in the computer lab here at school and some "average Joes" were listening to a classical music recording for a music appreciation class. They said that they liked the beginning of the piece but they weren't sure if the instrument in the beginning of the piece was a piano, french horn, or flute.

So if they couldn't tell the difference between a flute, french horn, and piano, they wouldn't be asking the question "I wonder if the flautist was playing on a Powell or a Haynes"

Erin, that is my point, at the end of the day the only real critic is the audience, they just want you to sound great, even if they don't know it's a flute your playing