I made a topic a while back about the Miyazawa 102, Yamaha 574 and Pearl 765 Coda

Still haven't gotten to try the Pearl.. (or ANY pearls) Supposedly, one of the stores said they have at another location and the would send it to our local same chain) and said that it would come Thursday if everything went perfectly.. My moms guess is that it was for someone else, like the Yamaha they ordered for me to try was in their system, so any of the other stores could "order" it, but they'd have to wait a while as i have it for a week..

I wanted to call the store that ordered it for us to see if they knew anything about it.. my mom forgot to ask our store about it when she picked up the Yamaha.. if they didn't know i want to get one from Fluteworld.. but im currently broke since i offered to pay shipping so my mom would let me.. i doubt she would as i owe her a lot of money already (i just bought an ipod XD)

but anyway, as far as I can tell I really like the Yamaha, but I can only compare it to my old flute (which like.. any new flute would easily beat, haha) and a Miyazawa 404 that the "flute person" at our music store is letting me borrow for All-State. (had my preaudition thing.. the audition for getting to audition.. (40-50 people signed up for band total, he needs to cut it to 28...)

It wasn't a bad audition at all.. but i kinda wish i would have been able to use this Yamaha instead of the Miyazawa. He said my tone is really nice, but i think its even better with the Yamaha

Im probably going to be going to get the Miyazawa 102 again to compare it. My teacher thought that I overblew too easily Miyazawa (101, 102) (My current flute, and the flute I've ALWAYS played on besides now, is heavy walled and has a ton more resistance) I wish/hope I can get the Pearl, Miyazawa and this Yamaha to take to my lesson in a week..

I would suggest taking notes on what you do/don't like about the flutes you try...That way, if you can't get them all together to playtest them against each other, you'll at least have a reference for what you thought of each one. Also, remember that there are far more brands in the price range you're looking at than Miyazawa, Yamaha, and Pearl, so if you get the opportunity playtest as many of the others as possivle. Good luck shopping, and be sure to let us know when you decide!

may i ask what type of flute you are playing on now and if it has a silver headjoint?

My current flute is an older King flute, B-foot, heavy wall (just learned that from my teacher) and yes, it does have a silver head. (As well as the Yamaha)

According to this http://www.musictrader.com/serialnos.html , my flute was made netween 1953 and 1954! :P It was my moms in highschool.. She got it probably around 1975- she would have been 16.

i asked that because if youre used to playing on a silver head (which ive found to give more projection than a silver plated head), you could be very easily overplaying the miyazawa 102 because of its silver plated tube. this happened to me when i was buying a new flute in high school. i played on a gemeinhardt 3sb and i tried various flutes but found that i could only play a solid silver model to its fullest extent without overplaying/overblowing it. id take a look at the miyazawa 202 as well if i were you. its $800 more than the 102 and i have a feeling that youll be able to project a lot more sound outta that baby over the 102.

$800 would buy a good handmade headjoint, though...

The design of the headjoint is far more important than what material it's made out of (and the material of the body matters even less, if at all). There are plenty of silver heads that are easy to overblow, and just as many resistant silver plate heads. I would suggest disregarding the material entirely, playing anything and everything you can get your hands on that's within your price range, and then choosing the one that you like best. It's great to limit your choices by considering what specs you want, but you need to temper this with some flexibility.

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Oh, and $800 might buy a used handmade head, but most new sterling hand made heads start at the $1100+ price range.

I myself am not a big fan of the Miyazawa headjoints and have only had one that I could play comfortably. That being said, if you can try putting on a different brand headjoint on the Miyazawa. I am willing to bet it is the headjoint, not the flute that does not work for you.

So i got to try the Pearl 765 today, it was ok.. but the Yamaha definately beat it out. I happened to run into my flute teacher at the store (the flute is for someone else to try at their house, so i just came into try it before they came and got it) and she listened to them.. and agreed that i get MUCH better sound with the Yamaha. (Well really, it is the headjoint. I put the yamaha headjoint with the Pearl, and a Miyazawa 404 that I'm borrowing (not to buy though) and it sounds really nice.

What I *really* want to do is buy a flute with C# trill and D# Roller (i really liked the roller on the Miyazawas..) and use the Yamaha EC Headjoint, but i don't think my mom would let me do that. Is it possible to buy JUST the body (from pearl, or miyazawa maybe), or would have I have to buy the entire flute, then go buy the yamaha headjoint and have two headjoints?

I tried a 202 at the store (just for comparison, and me and my mom didn't really notice much difference), but $800 more is too much for my mom to spend. $2300 is the absolute max she'd be willing to spend, (which is perfectly.. actually above reasonable IMO since this will be my third new instrument..)

At the point, Im getting the Yamaha (my mom's pocketbook will be happy!! haha ) Sound is definately worth it over the C#trill and stuff.. right?

Thanks for everyones help on here!! All of you guys are really really helpful!

It's usually possible to buy just a body if you want to, though some companies are more willing to do this than others, and in some cases, they'll only do it with a top-of-the-line flute, so I would suggest calling any companies you might be interested in bodies from and see what they say about the idea. At the very worst, they'll tell you that they don't sell bodies without heads.

And sound is definitely more important than any option. I find the C# trill and D# roller on my flute extremely useful, but most players get along fine without them....If you upgrade again in the future, perhaps you will be able to get them, but you'll be fine without them. However, you'd have a good deal more trouble in audition situations if you chose a flute that you didn't sound good on just to get a C# trill and rollers.

Also, don't forget that there are many more brands than the ones you've tried so far in your price range (Sonare, Azumi, Brio, Amadeus, Muramatsu, Trevor James, etc.), so try to as many of these as possible before any money changes hands. You just might find that something else works better for you than the Yamaha, and you're looking at spending a substantial amount of money, so you want the best possible match for your playing.

You can order just the body from the Miyazawa company, they do offer that option. If you sound better and you like the Yamaha the best, then I wouldn't worry about the extra frills. Pearl would be your only affordable option in that department and you already said that you prefer the Yamaha over it.

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Also, there are FAR more better and amazing headjoints than the Yamaha EC, so if you like that one, I would keep your options open to finding a good used headjoint.

I think i've mentioned this before, but i have been like.. EXTREMELY limited in my choices, basically to Yamaha, Miyazawa.. and kind of Pearl, although i barely got to be able to try the one i did.

I really wanted to order a few from Fluteworld, but i don't think my mom would let me, as my flute teacher said places like that usually don't get them all adjusted correctly and such like our music store does (like they spent 2-3 extra days getting the Yamaha adjusted to their flute persons liking) and ya..

I think I'll be pretty happy with the Yamaha, I am bringing it to my lesson Thursday so my teacher can see/hear/play it more.. and i don't think my mom has gotten to play it yet either, but im pretty confident im going to go with the Yamaha It will definately get me through highschool, and if i decide to go with flute longer than that, then I will upgrade again My flute teacher was also going to ask another store if they had any other Flutes/Pearls for us..

I find that Fluteworld does a far better job adjusting their instruments than most local music stores. I can't speak about your store in particular as I don't know how good their techs are, but there's no basis to that claim of your teacher's in my experience (and I've played MANY an instrument from Fluteworld), so if you can convince your mom to let you, definitely give some flutes from Fluteworld (or Carolyn Nussbaum or Flute Center of New York, or or or) a chance.

^Its probably true.. whenever we have taken my flute there to just get yearly adjustments, theres usally something slightly wrong with it.. last time they moved the cork on part of the keys that stops it from hitting the body so it was clinking.. and that was in two places, then they moved something on the Bb/B natural keys so it was clunking terribly! (A screw was hitting the body, if they had had the key adjusted slightly different, it wouldn't have done that.. it didn't before) We took it back and it still didn't get fixed.. so we (well my mom..) put small pieces of tape there to stop it.. i definately would not do that to my flute, but it did make it stop :P

I'll try to get one or two from fluteworld.. but i'd have to pay shipping myself (its like $50 one way for 3 of them) and i currently have negative amounts of money (I owe my mom $50) so i don't think I will be able to, unfortuneately.

I also mentioned to my mom about seeing how much a Miyazawa 202 body with C#Trill and D roller would cost, and then buy the Yamaha headjoint.. Anyone have an estimate for just the body?

But my teacher mentioned before that when your getting a Miyazawa, your mainly paying for the headjoint (and the name..) and the body is nothing really special, my mom then said to me today then is the Yamaha's body and headjoint special?? What do you all think of Miyzawas mechanism compared to Yamahas?

I think the Miyazawas is quieter.. or something. When your just fumbling random keys (no playing) i can kind of feel screws or something in the Yamaha compared to the Miyzawas.. but maybe its just me :P

I think we are going to get the Miyzawa I had before tomorrow and take it along with the Yamaha to my lesson Thursday