Many lacquered brass instruments come with care instructions but I havent seen these with chinese flute/piccolo imports. All brass players have seen lacquer wear off with time and anyone who has played the same flute for a long time will have seen the plating wear off in places. However, this should be a matter of many years rather than days. I've once seen lacquer come off a trumpet when it was washed in warm soapy water (as recommended). I would have expected this to happen if the water was too hot. The cause in this case was that someone had tried to relacquer it rather poorly ... the underlying surface wasnt clean!

No Lera, it is not a scam. It is a Venus flute in a Venus case. I have talked on the phone a few times with the seller. He is very nice. He has sent me a piccolo to try out to get my opinion on what improvements could be made.

Lera, how much do you charge to re pad a flute?

Do you know for sure... Does that apply to ALL brass,

I don't know "for sure" but there is not just the lead poisiong from the old brass, but also zinc poisoning. I've seen clinical photos of "brass poisoning" on the mouth (trumpet players in old articles on such). Apparantly this is where most of the concern comes from. Looked really nasty..

Joe B

Lera, that was a joke.

Personally, i would never by any instrument off e-bay. I wouldn't really trust the mail system today, as well as the fact that you cant really tell how well the flute sounds and handles from the other side of the world.

Lera, you still never gave us a clear answer on how you go about re padding a flute. I am mostly interested on how you seat them. I have heard of different ways of this being done, and am just curious.

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I would like to hear from you, so please no copy and paste this time. K? :)

eyy everybody... that flute Venus rose brass is horribly bad,,... its not even rose brass because the color that the joints have and the inside is like grey... i bought it because i was curious that a flute,,, that featured such a great qualities as seen in the pics,,, could have that price... I've been playing flute for 10 years and currently have a YFL-674 which i think is the best flute in the world... so spend some more bucks and get something good... Yamaha, Emerson or why not!!!! even the crappy selmer is better than this one Venus!!... now... ill try to convince this guy on ebay to return me the money...
lol ;( i want my 180 bucks back!

I bought a Venus silver open hole flute with the gold keys on it for $25 and it is the biggest piece of junk I have ever seen! I too, was curious about the brand, so that is why I purchased this one. The guy who sells them is really nice, but it really makes me mad that he is selling garbage like this. Parents buy them for their kids because they are cheap and pretty and they don't know what a big disservice they are doing for their kids. The one I bought was from someone who bought it for their kid and she couldn't get it to play, so just quite the flute all together. After I received the flute, I wrote to them and told them that it is no wonder why their daughter quite, even I couldn't get a sound out of the thing. The split E is just for looks on those, they don't even function properly. I wish that there was some type of quality control for things like this and that they would just be banned all together.

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The scale is horrendous on it too!

So, Kara..How could you determine that the scale was off if you couldn't produce a note from it? Are the toneholes way off, or did you finally get the thing to play?
It looks so pretty in the picture, too bad the flutes are such garbage.
It is a crime that kids get these things in hand and are expected to learn to play.

I had to re seat almost all the pads to get it to play. It wasn't worth the time though because it is being made into a lamp.

Ooooh, I'll bet it will be a pretty lamp. Would you post a photo when it's done?

This is, by the way, EXACTLY why so many repair techs won't even look at a cheap import flute for even a minor repair- they're a big can of worms and still a lamp in the end.

Sure I can posts some pictures. I am making it for my neice who is just estatic about it. She also plays the flute and is just as flute crazy as her Aunt. lol!

I just bought a flute online. It said it was Rose gold plated. Will this wear off in time?? I read that it was good for a warmer tone, something ive been looking foward in a new flute considering i still play a student model flute. Was this a good choice? i havent recieved it yet.

The plating will indeed wear off eventually. However, if it's a reputable brand of flute and the plating is applied well, it may last for several years. Unfortunately, however, gold PLATING is not going to give you any difference in sound, SOLID gold may (though by no means does it necessarily assure "darkness"), but plating won't do anything to darken your tone. If the flute is of decent quality, and you playtested the flute against other options and chose it after some serious research, then it may be a good choice....If you haven't played it yet, or didn't try any other flutes, or it is of poor quality, then it could easily be a poor choice. What kind of flute (make and model) did you buy, specifically?

You will know if it was a good choice if you (a) either you are a skilled player and know the mechanics of a flute or (B) take it into a competent repair tech. If it is a Venus or off brand flute then I have heard that these flutes only last to about a years time if that before they break down leading to more problems. As Chris did say that plating will not effect the sound it is either for allergies or for looks in which do not last.