For a learner of the Flute would a BUFFET brand be ok.

Go for Yamaha! Even if it is second hand. Don`t be conned by the Buffet reputation attached to clarinets.

ok thanks

Go. Now. Yamaha. Flute.


ahem... sorry... but I promise you that Yamaha is the best student model flute out there.

I used one from gradeschool to my freshman year in highschool. It is best to get a yamaha

Funny how names lose respect when they cross the Atlantic. Buffet is respected over here and perhaps 15 years ago was regarded as superior to Yamaha.

You might as well say "don`t buy a Yamaha clarinet, don`t be fooled by their reputation for flutes"

90% of it is simply fashion in my opinion. Yamahas have got worse not better in terms of set up needed after leaving the factory, and no better in terms of tone, and Trevor James have got better not worse, and yet all of a sudden, something like 10 years ago, Trevor James was out and Yamaha was in.

It`s a funny world.

Liz

I strongly disagree re Trevor James, from those I have seen.

I`ve been around for a good while now, and I don`t recall ANY time when Buffet was a significant flute maker, nor made a half-decent sounding flute.

One struggles to find ANY instrument well set up at the factory these days, including top (Selmer) saxophones and clarinets (including Buffet and Selmer). Exceptions are the expensive flutes and top end oboes.

Yamaha make all their student instruments (and a zillion other products) to a very high standard. Buffet, by comparison, is a clarinet specialist who is relatively small time in saxophones and hardly featuring with flutes. (Do they actually make them, or just get their name put on them?) There is a huge difference between making a good clarinet and getting the acoustic design right in a flute head!

There have been great improvements over the years to the tone/volume/response in professional flutes over the last couple of decades. Yamaha has included student flutes in this development programme. Most other makers have by comparison simply stagnated.

However I believe that within say 10 years, the best value for money will be in Chinese/Taiwanese flutes. At present, buying these still runs quite high risk of a low standard of production which can backfire seriously on the owner when servicing is required (which is often very soon!)

Just my opinion.

But with respect, you are probably in the US, am i right?

I do agree with you about Taiwanese / Chinese flutes though. Ten years from now they could be very different.

Liz

Thank you for some wonderful insight.

"....But with respect, you are probably in the US, am i right?"

No, not at all. I am in New Zealand, and possibly BECAUSE of the remoteness here, I encounter a very wide range of instruments for comparison, and possibly a reasonably balanced perspective. I have worked on at least 125 brands of flute alone.

Hi! I don`t think Buffet is a good name in flutes. Armstrong, Pearl, Yamaha, Geminhardt and maybe even Jupiter...these that I listed are closed hole flutes...If you want open hole I`ll put some links up for you later.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=47100&item=3742287729&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10183&item=3742107694&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10183&item=3742584362&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=47101&item=3742694843&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10183&item=3742425869&rd=1

Buffet????
I`m a professional flutist of 11 years, and a performance major at western university.. and in all my travels I have never come accross a flute by that name.. I`m sure that they exist.. but they can`t be all that great if they`re that uncommon. I`d suggest going with a gemeindhart or a yamaha

Terrific thanks again, I know what direction Im going in now.

Buffet is a big name in flutes (as well as clarinets) in the UK (and presumably the rest of Europe). Over here, people won`t look twice at Armstrong or Gemeinhardt. it`s a funny world.

Liz

And here, they hardly look twice at Buffet, Armstrong, Artley, Emerson, Selmer, Trevor James, Jupiter,....., and not much at Gemeinhardt either.

They look at Yamaha because of reliability, consistency, good tone/volume/response/mechanism/consistency, Pearl because of the vigorous marketing, and for higher end flutes, mainly Muramatsu, Altus, Sankyo.

The most popular student flute a few decades ago here was Grassi, but they had too many problems the maker just did not attend to, while Yamaha kept getting better.

I have been playing flute for one year in a community band and I have a Buffet flute. It is a great flute and I love it! (Not to mention I have the best case out of all the flute players in my band that i didn`t have to pay extra for) So I highly recommend a Buffet flute. It has good pitch and eveything.