Hi, I'm a high school student and I've been playing my beginner Pearl flute for 5 years now. I was planning to buy a new flute but I'm being overwhelmed by all my options! But I was hoping I could get some advice or recommendations on the few flute brands I've narrowed it down to. They are Muramatsu, Gemeinhardt, Pearl, Yamaha, or Trevor James. I would like a flute with open holes, a B foot joint, and I would rather not have offset G key. Other suggestions are appreciated! Thanks!

what is your budget?

I guess 3000 at the most...

you will get many opinions on here, the ones you listed are good, except the Gemmie, IMO, don't neglect Altus, they are also very good..

Thanks! I was thinking a Pearl Flute Quantz 665RB or a Altus 1307RB. But I'm not entirely sure yet.

For the Pearl, you might what to also check out the Dolce and Elegante.

Your Pearl is a nice flute. The thing is that there's hardly any difference between the body of your current one and the better ones other than what metal it's made out of.

ie - hardly any difference in how it plays and nothing at all in sound. Contrary to marketing claims, what metal or to be more precise, alloy the flute is made out of isn't important at all to the sound.

That IS important is the headjoint. I suspect that if you put a Pearl pro headjoint on the flute or a custom made one, you'd improve your sounds greatly.

Here's a nice trick:
Take the body of your flute an look down the bore. Notice how it's a homogeneous tube with holes in it for the keys? This is all that the air stream in your flute sees once it has been set in motion. It's literally this simple and the only difference between various flutes is the placement and shape of these holes to affect the tuning and so on.

It's honestly something that any machine shop could do.

So the real difference between the placement/shape/et of those holes is the keys and so on outside of the body. But they don't affect the sound at all.

So what does? The Headjoint. This is where the sound is created and starts. If you look closely at every flute, each one is different. The bodies? Hardly any, because if they vary too much, they won't be able to play in tune.

Spend your money on a better headjoint and you'll end up paying half as much money for twice the sound.(usually $900-$1500)

The search button at the top of this forum may come in use for you as this is a topic brought up merely once a week on this forum.

The only flute in your list that I would recommend is Muramatsu. IMHO,the others are not really in the same class except for the Pearl professional line that starts at around $5000 and up in which I don't think that was the model you were referring to. (I have been accused in the past for bashing or hating Pearls which is not true at all.) Depending on your level of playing, if you are in HS then there really is no need for a expensive top handmade line of flute anyway. Of course I don't know what your goals are though and if you plan on majoring in music or not.

Now if you have a lot of money to blow then I say go for a Powell, Muramatsu, Nagahara, Brannen or Miyazawa. If money is a factor and you want the the closest thing to handmade with a superb mechanism then I would say go for a Muramatsu EX. Some don't like the headjoints on them, but I don't have many issues with them besides the fact that they don't seem to project as well as I would like. You can always put a different handmade headjoint on it from another maker also.

If you prefer an in line G then that would be a benefit to you if you were looking for a used flute as these seem to go for cheaper since a lot of people have or are switching to offset. It may be a bit of a nuisance though if you are looking for new as I know that Carolyn Nussbaum only carries offset G flutes as well as other flute companies and if they do carry in line then selection is much smaller. So that is the only down side to that. Hope all my rambling helped and best of luck to you.

My apoligies, I did not see that you had put Yamaha on the list. That is a good brand that I would also recommend, but in my opinion I prefer the Muramatsu over them.