I recently bought a step-up flute. I have been playing the flute for 5 years and consider myself an intermediate player. I bought a used Selmer Flute for $425. It has a solid silver headjoint, solid silver body, silver-plated B-Foot. It is an In-line G and open hole model.

It plays and looks great. It is in excellent and has gotten brand new pads. The only gripe I have about it is that I have some pain in my hand. I have plugged the holes, so i think it must be the inline G. I have relitively long figers (for a 14 year old), so I think I will get used to it.

So Flute experts, did i get a good deal? And what are your suggestions about getting used to in-linte G and open-hole?

By the way, here is a picture of it. It is in excellent condition. http://www.ginasflutes.com/422b.JPG

it is a matter of opinion, many prefer offset g, I always want my younger students to have offset, but as one matures it is a matter of comfort, you should feel no strain when you play though..

I think that you would have been further ahead if you would have bought a used student Yamaha rather than a Selmer. I know you asked for our opinion, so please don't take this the wrong way. Solid silver, low B or not, I would not have spent any money on a Selmer only because they are poorly made. Sorry to be honest. I suppose all that matters is if you like it in the end.

Well, it's shiny.

Some other brands of flute have engineering which makes the sound a lot better, more responsive, and more in tune, than a Selmer regardless of how much silver is in the actual flute. (My Pearl 501 student flute outplays a solid silver Gemeinhardt, for me and my flute teacher, even with its silverplate headjoint.)

I don't get why it has a solid silver headjoint, a solid silver body, but a silver plated footjoint.

Usually a flute will have a solid silver headjoint with a plated body and foot, or silver head/silver tubing on body and foot (plated keys and mechanism) or solid silver throughout, including keys.

I haven't heard of a solid silver head/body with a plated footjoint, unless the footjoint is a replacement for a solid silver C-footjoint, in which case I would have taken the C-foot!

Actually my old Armstrong 80B that was purchased back in 1980 had a solid silver headjoint and body. The footjoint was plated. I don't know why they did that but that's the way it was.

If you have the holes plugged, you could always get extensions made for the keys.(little tabs of metal that stick out maybe 1/2 inch)

Myself, I bought some metal plugs years ago for my Yamaha(custom order - not Yamaha IIRC) and put it on my two upper holes. And there they stay. Inline action, open holes for the right hand.

From a distance, it looks like a swapped some keys from a closed hole flute for the upper half.

That way I can hit the key at the edge instead of the dead center and it won't affect the tone.