I was hoping to get some advice from the group regarding corrosion on a flute. My daughter plays a Gemeinhardt 3SHB which has a silver headjoint but plated body/keys. The flute was purchased new and she has played it daily for the last three years. She has very acidic sweat which seems to be corroding her flute. She wipes the flute down after playing but it seems not to help much. The silver is nearly gone on some of the keys.

My question is: will she have the same problem with a solid silver flute?
Any other suggestions to help with this?
Thank you for your assistance!
Mike M.

Some so called "solid silver flutes" are in fact solid silver flutes with a layer of silver plating for finishing purposes, because solid silver polishing would make them far more expensive. In this case you would fall into the same problem.
But, there are many different silver plating that are more or less resistant to acid sweating. From my experience I could not tell about it, because even having owned an old silver plated Yamaha from the 70's, it had never suffered such a corrosion. Now I also have a Muramatsu EXIII, whose body and keywork is also silver plated. It's known to be a very reliable flute, and as far as I know, very resistant to this kind of problem. But again I could not tell, since this is brand new (and acctually I seldom use it, because it's a spare flute).
If you decide to go for a solid silver flute, I would recommend a handmade model. But take to account that they are more expensive, although resistant to corrosion, but still you would have to manage some tarnishing over time. It's normal even to solid silver models.

I've had this issue with plated keys on my flutes.
Not a problem with my solid silver Haynes ~1982 though. It tarnishes but doesn't show much wear.
I have a 3SB Gemeinhardt that has the ridges around the key holes worn flat and the plating is long gone. This happened in my univ. training and actually in about 6 years time. It sits in it's case and I haven't played it at all for about two decades.

i hate to corect you zevang but solid silver flutes are plated in silver to cover up the fire scale from soldering and must have a full polished finish prior to plateing as most plateing is only aproximatly 3 micron in thickness so it in no way will fill scratches from the manufacturing process. allso plateing will allways imitate the finish it's being plated on to.

It may help your daughter if she washes her hands in bicarb soda prior to playing so as to nutralize any acid from sweat on her hands and after playing lightly go over her flute wish a slightly damp cloth that has the same alcaline solution on it so as to nutralize any highly acidic sweat thats on the keys

dusting her hands with talcum powder so as to absorb any remaining moisture may allso help but please ensure she completly wipes any remaining powder of as over time the build up may hinder the moveing parts of the flute

this will only be a problem with base metal silver plated flutes as solid silver will not pitt or flake under normal conditions only plated metal will as the acid gets under the plateing and causes the base metal to corrode thus lifting and pitting the thin silver plateing

i allso have heard of people changeing there diet so as to try and eliminate the high acidic foods that create this problem she may be able to speak to her doctor about it for advice on lowering the body's ph level to a more exceptable level.

Thank you all for the advice. I'm not a musician, just a parent of a budding musician and a music lover.

I assume that the loss of silver plating won't have much of an effect on the sound of the instrument. I think we'll just keep taking it for cleaning and adjustment every six months and see how it holds up. Is that a normal maintenance schedule?

When we buy a new flute I don't want another "intermediate" instrument. I just need to get over the sticker-shock of the handmade instruments. How can you tell when it's time for a student to move up to a more professional instrument?

Thanks again and Merry Christmas (or happy holidays).
Mike M.

The only reason I can think of to get a student a handmade flute would be if she were a college student majoring in music. There are plenty of other great flutes out there, above the mass-marketed "intermediate" flutes that are not handmade. They are much cheaper, too. Now, if the money is no issue, and you still want a handmade, go for it, but I suggest a cheaper alternative.

Thanks again for the advice. I think I used the wrong words, saying "handmade". I think I understand the difference now that I've done some reading. Perhaps the correct word would have been "professional". For example a Muramatsu GX or a Yamaha YFL-774. Are these along the lines of what you called "manufactured but excellent"?

Thanks again
Mike M.