 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Speculator Sam
Date: 2018-10-13 00:38
I'm back from my clarinet BBoard hiatus. I have a question. So, kinda interested in learning the flute sometime... I still love the bass and soprano clarinets and am sure these'll be my primary instruments for the next few years, but I do get extremely captured by Eugene Bozza's "Image". Any clarinet players here know of a decent $100-$300 flute that's well enough to learn on and serve an intermediate player? Thank you for reeding... Reed pun.
Post Edited (2018-10-13 00:38)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2018-10-13 00:43
Flutes are even more delicate and subject to faulty handling than clarinets.
Cheap new flutes are invariably rubbish, just wasting your money and introducing frustrating difficulties to learning to play.
In Europe the best brands of student flute are Yamaha, Pearl and Jupiter.
You might just find a good used example at around the $300 mark, but essential to get an experienced repairer or flute player to check it out for you.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Windy Dreamer
Date: 2018-10-13 17:29
I have a very reliable silver Artley flute that was previously owned by a professionl orchestra player.Despite the silver it appraises at only $200.00 Canadian. I have seen these silver Artleys sell on the internet auctions for $100.00-150.00 US with warranty several times. I also have a $100.00 department store flute that all too often takes an hour of tinkering to achieve 10 minutes play time.Local music techs won't touch them. I revere it because it was the first wind instrument that I learned to play. I also had an Armstrong (104 ?) that my tech store sold on my behalf for $300.00. They sometimes sell online for as little as $40.00.
Post Edited (2018-10-24 19:32)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2018-10-13 19:00
I second the Artley. For some reason they have an extremely low resale value. I once tried to sell a solid silver Atrley flute for $200 just to get the money back that I put into it. Even after trying to sell in for months nobody was interested. In order to sell it I had to sell the head joint, body and foot separately as parts so as to avoid loosing money on it...
-Jdbassplayer
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2018-10-14 00:18
I have had quite a few US made student instruments through my hands in my repairing days, Artley, Gemeinhardt, Selmer, etc and to be honest I found the build quality of all of them to be nowhere near as good as the Yamahas.
I accept that the current Yamaha student flute production (Indonesia ?) is not up to the standard of the earlier Japan sourced models, but they are still pretty decent.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ed
Date: 2018-10-14 07:19
Look for a used Yamaha student instrument. They are really nice playing instruments and will be a pleasure to play.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: shmuelyosef
Date: 2018-10-23 23:41
I agree with the Yamaha flute. I have bought a number of these cheap over the years for <$100, serviced them as necessary and either sold them to rental shops or donated them to under-funded middle school music programs.
I have two flutes for my personal use.
1. A Muramatsu EX III (the bottom of the Muramatsu line, but a spectacular playing and beautiful instrument.
2. A used Yamaha 211 student instrument, which I have augmented with an EC-cut head for $450 (3 times what I paid for the flute!)
I can play these interchangeably...the Muramatsu has a sweeter tone, but the Yamaha has extreme dynamic capability (better for big band or outdoor folk music)
The Yamaha stays in regulation better than the Muramatsu, but the Muramatsu has a slight edge in the feel of the keywork.
Despite the fact that that I have 4X the money invested in the EX III, these flutes are on parity with each other once you accept their different purposes.
I had a Gemeinhardt 3SHB for many years before I decided to invest more effort in playing flute better, bought the used Yamaha on the guidance of my daughter's flute teacher, and immediately stopped playing the Gemeinhardt. The EC head and the Muramatsu were added in the last 10 years.
Just long-winded support for investing in a solid Yamaha plateau flute, and when time comes for an upgrade, put all the money into a new head. However, between what you can buy and the repair cost to bring it 'to snuff', you won't be likely to find the core flute for less than $300. Clarinet players are spoiled in that you can find a very nice clarinet (e.g. a Vito 7214 or Bundy) for <$100 used and often it will play OK.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Speculator Sam
Date: 2018-10-27 23:40
Thanks for the advice. I think what I'm going to do, if I choose to, is to look up a used Yamaha, or as Yosef suggested, support my local wind instrument dealer and by one of their "student" flutes (A Gemienhardt for $549 american dollars). I might just have one of these too https://uswoodmetal.com for the fun of it. Quite frankly at this time of my life, i find it difficult to get in a 90min. practice session 3-4x week on my days off from work, let alone my work weeks. I suppose it's nice to play multiple instruments, but I think it's probably better to get reasonable well at one before trying another, especially if it's a woodwind instrument and you buy it just to not bother with it and it disrepairs and stiffens due to lack of activity... but I digress. Thanks for the discussion folks.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: 2cekce ★2017
Date: 2018-10-28 19:50
Being a clarinet player myself for years and my love for clarinet will always be first, I do have a passion for flute as well. I play both (Clarinet & flute) in my marching band. my first flute was a gemeinhardt 2S I bought used for just under $300.00. I still had it looked over by a reputable repair shop just to be sure it was in good condition. I later upgraded to a new Yamaha. I found that in my search for a good used flute these days proved to be more expensive than clarinet. Chances are if you do find one, it may need some overhaul to bring it up to playing condition.
There are new ones out there going for less but a good friend of mind who happens to be a good flute player advised me to stay clear of those. Good luck on your search.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: shmuelyosef
Date: 2018-11-04 06:01
For the same quality and playing condition, flutes are definitely more expensive. They are also much more finicky than Clarinets to put in top playing condition and keep them there.
Thank goodness that the best clarinets are still made from trees rather than platinum, although it would be better if they were made from high-tech reinforced polymers (IMHO)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2018-11-04 07:29
I got a nice Boosey & Hawkes Emperor ("Cooper pattern") flute on That Auction Site, for all of $30. With zero repair work needed, it plays very well.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
