I wanted to get a new, better flute than the one I already have, which my flute teacher thinks is holding me back.
The one I was looking at was an Amadeus, AF700B. (Anyone know if that's a good choice, or if I should get something else to last me the last 2 years of high school and maybe through college?)
They're selling that one for about $1750 at the store, so my dad was hoping that he could sell the flute I have now to contribute to the price.

I was wondering what the best way to sell my current flute would be. It's an intermediate flute:
Armstrong 303B, I know, very common, and I've only had it for 2 years. It's Open hole, sterling silver head, silver plated body, B foot, inline G. It's in very good condition, and I've never needed to get it repaired. There are some tiny scratches on the headjoint, and a very small dent on the underside.
My dad wanted to put it up on ebay, but I dont think we'll get very far on that.

Is there any advice for selling it? I'm hoping to have my dad pay as little as he needs to on my new flute (I'm just guilty, I guess ).

Does anyone know how much I might be able to get for it, roughly?
Thanks!

I am sorry to say that I have not heard any positive reviews yet on the Amadeus line. I have not tried one myself, so I can't tell you personally what I think of them. What would be the best thing for you to do is have a few different brands and models sent to you by flute shop like Flute World on trial. That way you will have a good selection and won't be limited to what just the local music store has in stock. Try as many as you can and pick what works well for you. Not everyone is going to agree on one certain make and model, that is all personal preference.

As for selling your flute. The best place that I think is looked at most by a lot of teachers and such is www.usedflutes.com It is free to list your flute on there. A word of caution though, you will get a lot of spam if you post on that site and a lot of scammers, so use a throw away email address like a Yahoo. You could probably get $350, maybe $400. The best time to sell it is right now before all the kids go back to school. I buy and sell used flutes as my profession, so I can tell you this from experience.

If you are going to sell your flute and you have never had any repairs done to it, I highly suggest you take it in to a good repair tech and have it oil, adjusted and have it cleaned and polished (if needed) and have the dent taken out of it. Most people are looking for a flute that is in perfect or close to it adjustment that will not need any work done to it. If you haven't had it taken in for any kind of work in the past 2 years, then I can guarantee it will need it. (I also repair flutes.) You will also want to get a very clear and up close good photo of it. The picture is a major part in what sells it. If you notice on ebay how some sellers have really blurry and poor representation on the flute they are selling, they will not make nearly as much as a seller that had a good representation of the flute and a GOOD photo.

If you need help selling it, please fell free to write me privately and I will help you out, as I deal with selling everyday.

I hope that helps! Good luck to you.

ive tried the amadeus. i loved it. of course i tried the one they now have discontinued but if theyre anything like they were before, youre in good hands. the tone is dark and sweet (but i like the dark sound) and the mechanism is nice. Personally, I liked the amadeus...

and as for selling, go around to students in your school band that you think need to advance to a new flute (or you think can afford to advance). look around online to prices that your current flute is selling at. you can talk your flute up as much as youd like, but just make sure you dont lie. also go to the middle schoolers who you think should advance from their gemeinhardt 2sp models, you know? (im speking in generalities). I ALMOST sold my other flute, but i realized i should keep it because i dont want to take my muramatsu to school and out on the marching field (we dont march with piccolos). i dont know about you, but i dont want to ruin a $7000 instrument, you know? talk to your dad and if you think keeping your old flute may be the way to go just for now so you can keep your nice flute at home and not worry about pretty dents from uncaring stand mates on your headjoint in your brand new amadeus, let him know your concerns and think about possibly saving up your own money.... thats what i had to do. if you still think selling is right though, go to fellow band mates. theyre the best buyers i think.

Thanks for the great advice! I'll definitely talk to my dad and my flute teacher too, and see what they think.

When I tried the Amadeus, I really liked how easily it played. The tone was so much better than my Armstrong, and I liked how it felt. I might try some more on Fluteworld, if my dad agrees, like you said

I already have another very basic, student flute for marching (it's an Accord), so I'm going to keep that one and sell my Armstrong. Sometimes, when I had no choice but to bring that one to my lesson, my teacher was surprised at how good of a tone I made on the Accord, and it was even better than my Armstrong. So I really wanted to get a flute with a better tone, lol. The high E on my flute also is hard to get out, and the REALLY high notes take a lot of work.

Are there any other models or brands you would suggest? My budget isn't huge, so I'm not really looking to get a Powell or anything like that, but I probably have around $2000 to spend, maybe a little less. I've been playing for 7 years, and I'm a junior in high school.

i personally liked the amadeus the most for the price range you have. my second choice would be a dean yang. only reason i know a bit about whats out there is because that was my original budget when i was looking to buy flutes so i tried anything and everything. you can find some nice used flutes, so if you live close to a music store, id check out their used flute inventory. also try muramatsu america/little piper for their used flutes. erv monroe is SUCH a sweetie... then again im not sure where you are and im blessed that i live just a few exits off the highway away from some great flute shops

im also going to be a junior in high school but i havent been playing for quite 7 years. length of playing isnt something to be persuaded by my "lack of ability" though. my teacher was the one who picked out my flute i have now. i just fell in love with it. she said that i outplayed almost every intermediate model/low-level professional model out there. and i just didnt like the lack of projection the silver plated flutes gave me, so that could be why i have such an exquiste instrument. but we made it work. the amadeus is a nice flute. i liked it alot. i hope you find something you enjoy!

i dont know about you, but i dont want to ruin a $7000 instrument, you know?

Good advice. I am glad to see you have such caring parent(s) to buy you such and expensive flute at your age It must be nice.

Irequesthelp,
Since unforutunetly you don't have 7 grand to dish out, I woudld recommend looking at a used flute. The Yamaha 500 and up series are nice and you may want to look into the Sonare or you might be able to find a Muramatsu EX used in you budget.(though I personally don't care for the brand much after owning one.) You also may be able to find a Miyazawa 102 used.

<Added>

Oops I meant to address that to whateverittakes. I think names would be easier for me to remember, sorry.

Ugh.. sorry for all the spelling errors in the last post.

Yeah, I talked to my flute teacher today and she recommended that I try a Sonare, because she says the Sonare and the Amadeus are similar, but she's never tried the Amadeus. The Sonare is a little bit cheaper than the Amadeus.
Do the french pointed arms make a real difference, other than the fact that they look nice lol? Because the Sonare has it and it's more expensive.
I'm gonna just try it, but hopefully the lady who is selling it will let me borrow it so I can take it up to the music store (it takes a long time to drive there from my house) and test them both together. :/

French pointed armas are pretty.
If they are on a good flute, then they are probably well made. If they are on a cheapo flute, then forget it. But you don't want a cheapo flute anyway.

What I would encourage is having a flute with adjusting screws on it. The more expensive models usually have hidden adjustment screws and the really expensive ones sometimes have no adjustment screws at all. The lack of adjustment screws can make getting the flute in perfect adjustment more time consuming and difficult. This is an especially aggravating problem if just one key goes slightly out of adjustment- your repair tech now has to take the whole thing apart and take out pads, etc. , instead of making one small adjustment with an adjusting screw. I hope that you can appreciate how that could make owning a flute without adjustment screws more expensive.

I doubt that you will find a flute with such a lack of adjustment screws at your price range.

EBay can be a reasonable place to get good money for a used flute if you do it right, but you are likely to get more money selling locally to another student looking for a silver-head step-up flute.

To Whateverittakes,
I am purchasing a used Amadeus, AF900B with C# trill to use maybe use as my backup flute, so I will let you know what I think of it when I get it if you would like.

Oh, okay, tell me what you think about it! I think the only difference between the 700 and the 900 is the french pointed arms, the 800 has the french pointed arms but only its headjoint is silver.

Tibbie Cow wrote: "This is an especially aggravating problem if just one key goes slightly out of adjustment- your repair tech now has to take the whole thing apart and take out pads, etc. , instead of making one small adjustment with an adjusting screw. I hope that you can appreciate how that could make owning a flute without adjustment screws more expensive."

Unless one or more of the pads is not sealing correctly, there is no reason to remove them because of an adjustment problem. On flutes without adjustment screws, clutches are used instead, and rather than turning a screw to adjust the flute, you use felts to do the same thing. The felts are sanded to the correct thickness to make the keys work together, so it may be necessary to take the flute apart to do some of the work, but no reason to touch the pads simply because the flute lacks adjustment screws. When putting a flute into adjustment, there is a hierarchy that must be followed: first of all, the pads must all seal well on the tops of the toneholes, regardless of how much lost motion there might be, or how far the connected keys (F-F# for example) are from sealing together. Once this is accomplished, the adjustment screws or felts on the clutches are put at the right level so that those keys that are supposed to work together seal at the same time. Then you adjust the corks on the kickers to eliminate the lost motion. This means that assuming it is a simple adjustment problem, there is no need to work with the pads in an attempt to correct it. I do agree that adjustment screws are a good thing, though, especially when you are dealing with the flute from a technical standpoint. I spent the last week working with one of the more prominent independent makers in the U.S., and he told me straight out that if he could, he would love to build flutes with adjustment screws for all the time and effort it saves to have them. It is definitely far easier to work on flutes with adjustment screws, but simply taking a flute apart to get at the felts is not at all difficult, and should not require much (if any) extra cost.