But what is she playing on at the moment? It might be more cost effective to have her existing one serviced.

contra448 wrote:

"But what is she playing on at the moment?"

We've still never learned that. All we know is that the church musician thinks the student has a "low-grade" flute. We never found out why it's "low-grade," did we? So the playing might be top notch for the church context, but perhaps the church musician is dismayed that it's not a "name" brand flute or maybe not shiny enough.

Who really knows? She's not telling.

ShanaMaria has informed me that it is indeed a low quality flute, but does not wish to embarrass the flautist who plays it by reveling where the flautist got it and for what price on a public forum. I found out the hard way that it is a rather sore spot for ShanaMaria. Fair enough- but it is hard to help without knowing these details. ShanaMaria, I would advise you to release the information, nobody knows who the flautist is anyway so there would be no need for her to get embarrassed.
Please forgive me if I have offended you once again...

Where the flute was purchased, and for what price, we really don't need to know.
It WOULD help to know the brand name and model, at which point we would know whether Low Quality Flute means 40-year-old Bundy, new Sky or Lark or Venus from China, or 10-year-old Yamaha 200 that just needed refubishing.
There's a sleazy piano store I've been in that sells poor quality instruments at inflated prices to the uninformed. I've seen a Armstrong 104 flute that badly needed new pads and adjustment, for $250. And that's before you get to the badly 'tuned' old crappy pianos they have for sale.

I've always wondered why people who are taken advantage of sometimes don't want to have their misfortune revealed. It could be a big help to other folks to say something about the transaction, factually (rather thatn in emotional terms), to help others make a better informed decision.