hey all i was given a yamaha 511 in excelent condition all 3 pieces are stamped 925 ie: sterling silver of set G french pointed arms i am unable to find any info on it as yamaha web sites curent 500 series seems to be plated models head stamped cy the only info i found was a small piece in a forum stating that the 511 was one of the best yamaha produced but weather or not this is true i cant say not realy looking at using it apart from a back up as i play a solid gold powell but would like to find out as much as i can about it as i'm starting to collect flutes any help would be greatly appreciated cheers

<Added>

has anyone played one are thay any good

The older model Yamahas have been discontinued and renamed the 600 series which are all 925 silver with silver plated keys! So, yes indeed, your 511 is all 925 with plated keys. The newer 500 series have 925 heads and plated body and foot.

Joseph

I am thinking this flute would be very similar to the very popular 581 model, which was solid silver head, body and foot tube, with silverplated pointed keys and mechanism. In the US, the inline G was 'the thing' to have, and the 581 model was inline.
It did come with a CY head, and from what I understand it would have been a hand-carved, rather than machine made embouchure cut.
I believe the older Yamaha heads had their embouchure cut and taper indicated with engraving/stamp (this one would read "CY") on the top of the head, just under the crown, on what would be the underside while the flute is being played. Machine-cut headjoints either were not stamped, or had a different indication of their particular cut/taper- I don't remember which, but it has been discussed on this forum before.

While the consistency of the machine made CY heads is fantastic, and it is a very good headjoint, some people who have a handmade CY head have said that their particular headjoint is better than a machine cut one. One extra pass of a file while undercutting can make a noticeable difference to how a headjoint responds, so this doesn't surprise me.

I bought a Yamaha 881 model flute, it came up for sale on eBay while I was looking to replace my Gemeinhardt 3SHB with a Yamaha 581. It had a handmade CY head, and that head was weird- asymmetrical, and didn't play all that well. I bought a different headjoint, and went on my merry way.

I just came across a handmade "CF" Yamaha headjoint, and it is really very nice. As described by Yamaha, it has the same embouchure cut, but a different tube taper, than the CY head. It is very 'happy medium', not too bright or too dark or really, too anything. It's just very playable. So I do think that the handmade heads can be 'special', unfortunately that can be a good thing or a bad thing.

Let me know what you think of the 511, assuming it is in good condition padding/adjustment wise.