Well after having read the other comments, I think that part of the issue with Fluteworld is that they order in bulk. They choose the most common options like a B foot that they can think the bulk of their customers are going to go for and they get a quantity discount. If they have to special order something that isn't in stock, they may be making it more difficult or more expensive because of these issues. I believe that on that level of flute, most players in the US end up getting the B foot. Now as for the head joint cut/taper, I believe that one is up to the company. EC is their standard one at this time.

They may also be using a time frame for special orders that could be well on the outside of the amount because if it does actually take a year they are covered.

BTW for those that are curious, the "H" for B foot as in 674H comes from the older German designation in their scale with the B natural being called the letter H. This goes back to atleast the Baroque era because Bach wrote a fugue on his name using the notes Bb, A, C, and B natural.

~Bilbo
N.E. Ohio

speaking of fluteworld, am I the only one who thinks they have the worst website?

I agree with you, Patrick. For me, it's just tough to get around on the website. None of it really makes sense to me (but it depends on how hard I am willing to think just to find something).

Well, the C /B foot issue was not so important in my decision, so did not search with this criterium as my first priority. In fact, I'm curious about having an instrument with a low B!

The main issues were price and references of the store.

I did not have more references for stores in USA other than those I received from the List here. I did have good references from porfessionals for the store in London (All Flutes plus), but they are more expensive and with a high 17.5% TVA, that I had to add to the price.

My teacher also confirmed that the flutes in USA are mainly with B foot (the contrary as in Europe, it seems). B footers are of course a little more expensive (about 100$ - 150$) for a YFL 6xx but, as I said before, I finally got it at almost the same price of the 674 with C foot, @ 2,395$.

I agree that the availability of one model or the other is just a question of commercial policy and bulk orders. I would add that there may be also some of being "à la mode" in this almost forced B foot availability. But it is OK for me.

Bilbo, I had not noticed that the "H" was for B natural. Makes sense, even considering that Yamaha is not much related to Germany.

But Bach is so universal (and my favorite composer). I was still a kid when I was so much attrapped by his "messe in H-moll" (B minor).

My parents could not understand why I liked so much that "church music", as they called it.

Many years later I was a member uf an universty chorus, it was the time of Robert Shaw tours, he had visited our city and we all decided we wanted to sing one of Bach's motets, "Jesu meine Freude".

But we wanted to sing it as Robert Shaw's chorus did, that is, with all the voices spacially mixed and not in groups (tenors, bass, sopranos, altos).

We did, and it was a greta success and it was also such a deep emotion for me that I was marked for ever by his music.

Sorry, I have changed theme several times, just felt like telling you this story.

Bilbo, do you remember which of the Bach´s works is that he wrote on the BbACH notes?

I thought it was The musical offering but it's not.

Jose,
googled this in a few seconds:
http://www.jsbach.org/fugueson.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BACH_motif
Seems it was not just Bach that used his name.
"J. S. Bach himself used it as a fugue subject in the final part of Die Kunst der Fuge (BWV 1080), a work he did not complete before he died in 1750. It appears in passing in several of his other pieces, such as at the end of the fourth of the canonic variations on "Vom Himmel Hoch", BWV 769. Its appearance in the penultimate bar of the Kleines harmonisches Labyrinth, BWV 591, is not thought to be very significant and the work may even be spurious (Johann David Heinichen has been suggested as a possible composer). It shows up in the St Matthew Passion in the section where the chorus sings "This man was God's own son most truly." In many pieces, while the exact notes B-A-C-H are not played, a transposition of the motif is used (a note sequence with the same intervals: down a semitone, up a minor third, down a semitone)."

~Bilbo
N.E. Ohio

Jose,
I should add that the Musical offering BWV 1079 was basically based on a theme presented by the King Frederick II "The Great" of Prussia on which Bach improvised the counterpoint pieces. King Fred btw played and composed for the flute.

Yes, I knew that. It would have been funny if the "Royal Theme" the King gave JSB to improvise was Bach's own name! Kings do not do that... not even with Bach.

BTW, I read that JSB could improvise on the spot the 6 voices Ricercare ("to seek", the old name for Fugue), so complex it's said to lie at the limits of the human capabilities.

He was so genial!

Also the endless rising three voice cannon on the same Musikalisches Opfer is something astonishing.

It starts in a tonality (C minor), ends quite naturally in D minor and then goes on an on always ending in the next tonality, it makes the listener wander through all of them, just for finishing again in C minor (one octave higher, of course).

All that without much notice or tone strain from the listener!

I would like to recommend to those interested in Bach, Music, the works of Escher and the recursive math of Goedel, to read a fascinating (quite readable, though though not very easy) book:

"Godel, Escher, Bach: An Ethernal Golden Braid". Author: Douglas Hofstadter. Published by Vintage Books in 1980.

I found it so fascinating that I still consider it the most interesting book I have ever read (so far, at least).

It will probably interest Tessa, if she reads this post.

I wanted to post the Royal Theme here, but the feature does not seem to work (it just opens a very small window)

Just curious if anyone has actually visited Flute World before?

Because, it is actually a BIG NAME but an itty bitty store. Most absolutely NOT a warehouse that would be capable of bulk ordering instruments like a big general music store. I have always had good luck every time I have visited their one single-location small store.