i recently bought an open holed flute with a b foot,
the problem is, i've never heard of the brand.
its brand is "J. Michael"
its a japanese brand. i've visited the website www.jmichael.jp
i've asked a couple of people and they also have never heard of this brand.
any of u heard of it?

They are a Chinese manufacturer.

From the bottom of the quality control page:
"We have picked up several factories in North China to tie up with technical and finalcial relationship and to develop the best quality and highest performanced instruments."

Note the misspellings on the quality control page!

I never heard of it, but how do you like it?

I am also interested to hear if this is a reasonable quality flute that plays well for its new owner.

An open-holed, B-foot flute may not be an upgrade to a basic student flute in good condition by Yamaha, Pearl, Jupiter, Armstrong, Emerson, Gemeinhardt and the like. Many times ignorant band directors tell flute players that they should upgrade, and their new flute should have open holes and a B-foot- only because these are the only obvious attributes of most upgrade flutes.

The cheap Chinese/eBay flute market has taken advantage of this ignorance and sells virtually unrepairable flutes that are often more difficult (rather than easier) to get a good sound from than a good quality student flute.

Open holes and a B-foot do not an upgrade make. The design and engineering, which influence playability, feel, and response, that you can really only find by test-playing the flute as well as asking about its repair/reliability, are the deciding factors.

Most upgrade flutes DO come with open holes and a B-foot, and there really are not any big problems with these versus closed holes (you can plug the open ones) and a C-foot (the B-foot is a little heavier, and makes the flute longer.) So I'm not saying that you should NOT have these specs on a flute, only that they make very little difference to the majority of flute players, with an occasional exception.

In most cases, if a student has a good flute (closed hole, C-foot), the best bang-for-the-buck upgrade is a used, pro headjoint(In some cases only $250 to $500).

<Added>

The open holes and B foot BY THEMSELVES do not make a flute play better than closed holes or a C-foot.

Never mind the pontification from others --- the French (open hole) flute IS superior to a Plateau flute.

Some manufacturers are, in fact, NO LONGER offering the Plateau flute --- unless by "special order".

That's because almost all "serious" flutists pro OR amateur, always opt for the open hole flute.

There are several reasons for this. There are people on this forum who maintain that Plateau flutes are "just as good" as open hole flutes. Don't pay any attention to that nonsense.
That's THEIR opinion. Possibly, because they CAN'T play an open hole flute.

As far as the "make" -- I've never heard of it.

nonsense, don't listen to the last post...even though I also prefer the open hold flute, there are many many flutists worldwide who play a closed hole flute and sound just as good..

get what feels best to you...

Never heard of it.

I do recommend play testing brands before you buy them. If I can't test it, I wouldn't buy it. If the manufacturor is reputable, they will allow you to test play the flute before buying.

Open-hole flutes being superior, one that has nothing to do with this forum, they are asking about the brand of their flute? and two open-holes are more of a personal choice, rather than a professional feature among flutes, since the company issuing the flutes feels that a open-hole flute is "superior" non-sense so not listen to that post, I am sorry, with all do respect but I have to completely disregard what you said.
No Choc_powder, if your flute plays good, you like how it feels, in your hands its response, and sound, and after a few months of playing it and its mechanically good, then their is no serious issue here, you know?

Sorry-so don't listen------ and for any other mistakes, my fingers tend to fly of the keys sometimes

I have seen that brand on ebay before. I have written to the seller several times asking where it was made and never get a response. Hmmm... I wonder why? So let us know what you think, I would be curious.

Oh and yeah.. please don't listen to anything Jim/Phil has to say. I agree with the others. He is only trying to stir up trouble and I am sorry he had to respond to your post in the process.

Micron, fluteandpiccolo was posting in response to the trolls post above that has been hidden because so many people flagged it. Click on the plus sign and you can read it.