( 
)
Sit down, buckle up, and get ready, because I'm about to share with you the great secrets of the flute industry.
So you want to buy a flute that will sound great, last forever, looks good, and will retain its value. Furthermore, you want to pay an outrageously low price. You want a deal so good it puts the seller out of business. You want it for under wholesale. You want to buy something for almost nothing.
You've come to the right place. Everyday I see flutes which would sell for $400 in a music store going for $300 on ebay. Some people get such good deals that I wonder if they even know what they are getting. The professionals, like myself, have for a long time taken advantage of this, using our skills and knowledge to find great deals and underestimated quality flutes. We are in the business of discovering hidden treasures.
THE BASIC STEPS IN THIS GUIDE
-How to identify a bad flute brand
-Choosing a good brand
-Identifying if a flute is any good
-How to judge the condition of a flute
-with a slight degression on overhaul techniques as well
-Your best bet on Ebay
Avoiding and identifying a bad brand
Not all flutes, not even all new flutes, are ever worth buying at any price. $100 is a great price for a good used flute. Lots of flutes on eBay sell for $100 or under. Very, very few of these are worth buying. Let's start at the bottom of the pile and move upwards.
The worst flutes for sale on eBay are the Chinese imports. I'm not just talking about the obvious ones, with the poorly translated titles like "fair sounding lucky flute instrument" auctions from China. The same flutes are sold by American businesses who import these flutes by the thousand. Most of the "bankruptcy sales" and "80% off retail" listings are these flutes. All of the colored flutes fall into this category. These colored flutes, be they pink or blue or black or whatever, are all extremely low quality. Most of the listings which describe the flutes by year such as "2006 model" or "2007 model" are these flutes. (Real flutes are not like cars. They are not sold by model year.) For some reason they often come with "joint protectors", or little plastic caps that fit on the end of the tenons. Sometimes they are sold with grease for the joints. (This is unusual for the good brands). They will claim a normal retail value in the $600 range. This is an exaggeration; they import these flutes from China for as little as $25 per flute. (Virtually all brands, even the good ones, list suggested retail values which no one expects to pay. Gemeinhardt lists their popular 2sp model for around $700 but the actual new price is around $330). The descriptions are suave with much html and they look quite professional. They will claim to be high quality and will say they are not the cheap imitations you have heard about, even though they are. They will say they are enormously popular in school band programs. (Band directors and flute teachers laugh at these flutes.) My favorite thing they say is that these flutes are "Teacher Approved." There is no teacher I know of who would recommend these flutes for their students. Even though they are made in China, they are not always shipped from China, but rather are sold from America. The sellers are often American Power Sellers with tons of very positive feedback. People post feedback immediately upon receiving the flute in the mail. They open up the package, look at the shiny flute which they have no clue how to play and immediately send rave reviews to the seller's feedback account. A month later, when the flute literally falls apart, the buyers are unable to leave negative feedback because they already left positive feedback. When they do break, the warranties will be recently expired. And of course, these sellers never give anyone their phone numbers or email addresses, and never answer questions.
There are many reasons why these flutes are a waste of money. They are manufactured in China by unskilled assembly line workers who get paid less than a dollar per hour. The metal these flutes are made of is not nickel-silver or even brass. It's usually pot metal, an alloy of copper and lead. Folks, there could be serious concerns here about lead poisoning. The metal is brittle and has a low 900 degree melting point. The low melting point makes this metal easy to work with in the construction of the flute, but impossible to repair. (The flutes are cast instead of forged.) These truly are "disposable flutes." Dents can not be removed from pot metal, ribs and posts can not be reattached with solder, and the tenons can not be adjusted. The silver plating is microscopically thin and will wear off quickly. Even worse, the silver plating is often applied with chemicals containing cyanide. (I wonder if they take the time to wash these chemicals off?) The metal underneath is grey and ugly. Spare parts are not available since it is always unknown which factory they came from. Either way, these factories do not sell spare parts anyway. There is no music store that I know of that would even attempt to repair a chinese flute. And I have seen some rather shocking construction defects on these flutes over the years.
What should I buy? Good flutes are made by good brands. Enough said, end of story. No exceptions. The sellers of the Chinese instruments I described above will claim that their brand is famous, well known, and high quality. Sometimes they exaggerate; most often they out and out lie. Most of those brands are not brands at all. The Chinese factories that sell these flutes sell them completely unmarked with no brand or serial number. The American importers engrave their own American sounding names onto the flutes, along with a meaningless serial number. When enough bad reputation spreads around the internet they just change the brand name.
How do I know the good brands from the imposters? Don't listen to anything the seller tells you. Anyone, anything. Don't even listen to me. I won't write out a list of good brands and bad brands because I want to be impartial, and I think such information could get me sued. Search on Google the name of the brand. If a large professional company website is displayed at the top of the page, it's a good brand. Try searching "Gemeinhardt flute". You'll see what I mean. If you can't find a large professional company website for the brand itself on the first page of results, (not the music store selling the brand) then don't buy it!
Why I won't just list the bad brands for you: I don't want to be accused of libel. There are some big companies in the Chinese instrument business, and they have good lawyers. There has been a large $20 million + lawsuit recently. . . And if any of these rip-off sellers are reading this right now: Ha ha you can't sue me.
What I can say objectively without being sued:
Gemeinhardt is the largest exclusive manufacturer of flutes and piccolos in the world. Their 2SP model is the top selling flute and the second best selling band instrument in the U.S.A. This is according to Gemeinhardt's own press releases, which can be read on Gemeinhardt's website.
Gemeinhardt flutes for sale in my store!
The Conn-Selmer Inc, America's largest manufacturer of musical instruments for band and orchestra, owns both Armstrong and Emerson as well as Bundy (discontinued) and Selmer. This is also information from their website.
Yamaha is the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments, according to their website. Their top selling student flute is the YFL-221 model.
There are many really good brands which are not seen on eBay very often and do not have category names listed for them. Make sure you do your research (google search) before buying one of these flutes to verify that it is actually a good brand.
Obviously, I'm sure there are some good honest Chinese instrument manufacturers out there who make good flutes. (I just haven't heard of any.) I am not racist and I have nothing against Chinese people or Chinese businesses.
I've found a good brand. How do I know if this particular flute is any good? Do some quick research on the brand's web page about that particular model. If that model is no longer listed on the website, it's probably an old discontinued model and not worth buying. Browse through the features, reading about the various options and technical aspects of the flute to make sure it has all the features you want and need. For example, is it open hole or closed hole? Does it have a C foot or a B foot? Silver plated or nickel plated? If you don't know what these most basic features mean then you should go back and do some more research before buying.
Judge the condition of the flute, especially the pads. Dents, dings and scratches indicate that a flute has been well used and may need repairs. However, these particular problems have no affect on the playability of the flute. The pads are the most important thing. If the pads are worn, they will need to be replaced in the near future. This service costs at least $150-$300 at a music store, or $100 plus shipping on ebay (if you trust them). Try to buy a flute that has been played very little, or ask the seller for a picture of the pads. Good pads will be yellow and flat, bad ones are white or grey and lumpy or fuzzy. Furthermore, ask the seller if the flute plays perfectly. Ask for a sound clip via email. Why is the seller selling this flute? If it is because the seller's child dropped out of band after a few months, well then, the flute could actually have been the problem. Flutes, even those by good brands, sometimes have defects or just don't play right. You don't want one of these. You want to buy a flute which the seller's child played successfully for a year then decided to upgrade to an intermediate level flute. These often play well since good players usually take care of their flutes. Still, it may need work.
The only flutes that are guaranteed to play well are those which have been completely overhauled by the seller. These flutes are used but have all new pads and corks. This is your best bet, they will not need additional repairs. Ask if the seller replaced all the pads and corks. If they only replace the ones that leak, well then, the other old ones will likely leak as well. Pads are like spark plugs. You must change all of them at the same time, or you will be in the shop for repairs every other month as they wear out one by one.
Overhauled flutes for sale can be found in the store: Fine Flutes and Piccolos
How are flutes overhauled? The process of overhauling a flute is a precise art that takes much practice and training to do correctly. I do not recommend that you try to overhaul your own flute. It's possible to learn, but it takes much practice and frustration before you get it right. Minor repairs, like replacing a felt bumper or resetting the tuning cork, is easier and can be done by anyone.
The typical methods for replacing pads. Many music stores and other repairers only repad student flutes. There is a reason for this. The techniques that they use are quick and full of shortcuts. You see, the hardest part of replacing the pads is leveling the pads over the tone hole so that there are no leaks. This is a frustrating process that involves taking the flute apart and putting it back together many times. Tiny leaks the thickness of a human hair will prevent a flute from playing at all. What music stores do is they wet the pads and heavily clamp them down so that they are molded over the tone hole. The flute is then put in an oven to dry the pads into their current position. This is a great shortcut and yields good results, but the life of the pads will be less, and they are less stable. Pads are made of felt, so when you wet them and dry them they become like a dry sponge (they keep the shape they're in). But when the pads get wet again from playing (condensation and spit) they lose their shape and swell up again like a sponge. This is how leaks are created.
For information on flute care and maintenance, view my guide Flute Care and Maintenance for Students and Beginners
What is the best method for replacing pads? Skilled repairers, such as myself, don't use the oven technique. Instead, we use a variety of shims the thickness of wax paper (.001 inches thick) to carefully level each pad perfectly, so that it does not need to be "mashed" into place in order to seal. This is the method which is used for professional flutes. (A professional overhaul can cost $1000. Seriously.) This method takes time, almost an hour per pad. (There are 16 of them). For a music store which charges $30 per hour of labor, this is too slow. How can I afford to spend this much time on each flute I repair? I am not a music store, and I find the whole process rather enjoyable. The profit that I make per flute that I sell ends up being a lot less than minimum wage per hour.
An overhauled, used flute like this one is your best bet on ebay.
Make sure you ask for better pictures than this one, though.
So your having trouble finding a good flute that fulfills all the requirements above while still being cheap? You can buy a Gemeinhardt 2sp for $90, but most of the time you'll need $150 of work put into it to play well. Or, you can buy an overhauled Gemeinhardt for $200 which will never need work. Still too expensive? I'm sorry, but I must refer you to Economic rule #1. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH. Or a cheap one, for that matter. You get what you pay for. If it looks too good to be true. . . Unless you have the years of experience it takes to spot a good flute right away, don't expect a killer bargain. On eBay, you will get a bargain regardless. Your main goal is to not get ripped-off. Sorry, but this is the real truth of things.
Notes:
Questions can no longer be answered by me due to Ebay's new messaging system, which blocks all communications other than those from buyer/seller. Sorry.
Any seller who would like to post a link in their auctions to this guide may do so.
Any junk seller who sends me a threatening or angry email will have that email posted here for the world to see. Rip-off sellers, consider yourselves exposed.
About me: I am a flutist and music educator with much experience in flute repair and the flute market in general. (Member of the NFA, National Flute Association). I have taught flute for many years to many brilliant students. I fix up flutes as a hobby and sell them on ebay every so often for a small profit. My goal is to educate students and their parents about the flute market so that they can make wise decisions in purchasing a flute. Hopefully, we can drive some of these scammers and rip-off sellers out of business as well.
Visit my Ebay Store: Fine Flutes and Piccolos
So you want to buy a flute that will sound great, last forever, looks good, and will retain its value. Furthermore, you want to pay an outrageously low price. You want a deal so good it puts the seller out of business. You want it for under wholesale. You want to buy something for almost nothing.
You've come to the right place. Everyday I see flutes which would sell for $400 in a music store going for $300 on ebay. Some people get such good deals that I wonder if they even know what they are getting. The professionals, like myself, have for a long time taken advantage of this, using our skills and knowledge to find great deals and underestimated quality flutes. We are in the business of discovering hidden treasures.
THE BASIC STEPS IN THIS GUIDE
-How to avoid a bad flute brand
-How to identify a bad flute brand
-Choosing a good brand
-Identifying if a flute is any good
-How to judge the condition of a flute
-with a slight degression on overhaul techniques as well
-Your best bet on Ebay
Avoiding and identifying a bad brand
Not all flutes, not even all new flutes, are ever worth buying at any price. $100 is a great price for a good used flute. Lots of flutes on eBay sell for $100 or under. Very, very few of these are worth buying. Let's start at the bottom of the pile and move upwards.
The worst flutes for sale on eBay are the Chinese imports. I'm not just talking about the obvious ones, with the poorly translated titles like "fair sounding lucky flute instrument" auctions from China. The same flutes are sold by American businesses who import these flutes by the thousand. Most of the "bankruptcy sales" and "80% off retail" listings are these flutes. All of the colored flutes fall into this category. These colored flutes, be they pink or blue or black or whatever, are all extremely low quality. Most of the listings which describe the flutes by year such as "2006 model" or "2007 model" are these flutes. (Real flutes are not like cars. They are not sold by model year.) For some reason they often come with "joint protectors", or little plastic caps that fit on the end of the tenons. Sometimes they are sold with grease for the joints. (This is unusual for the good brands). They will claim a normal retail value in the $600 range. This is an exaggeration; they import these flutes from China for as little as $25 per flute. (Virtually all brands, even the good ones, list suggested retail values which no one expects to pay. Gemeinhardt lists their popular 2sp model for around $700 but the actual new price is around $330). The descriptions are suave with much html and they look quite professional. They will claim to be high quality and will say they are not the cheap imitations you have heard about, even though they are. They will say they are enormously popular in school band programs. (Band directors and flute teachers laugh at these flutes.) My favorite thing they say is that these flutes are "Teacher Approved." There is no teacher I know of who would recommend these flutes for their students. Even though they are made in China, they are not always shipped from China, but rather are sold from America. The sellers are often American Power Sellers with tons of very positive feedback. People post feedback immediately upon receiving the flute in the mail. They open up the package, look at the shiny flute which they have no clue how to play and immediately send rave reviews to the seller's feedback account. A month later, when the flute literally falls apart, the buyers are unable to leave negative feedback because they already left positive feedback. When they do break, the warranties will be recently expired. And of course, these sellers never give anyone their phone numbers or email addresses, and never answer questions.
There are many reasons why these flutes are a waste of money. They are manufactured in China by unskilled assembly line workers who get paid less than a dollar per hour. The metal these flutes are made of is not nickel-silver or even brass. It's usually pot metal, an alloy of copper and lead. Folks, there could be serious concerns here about lead poisoning. The metal is brittle and has a low 900 degree melting point. The low melting point makes this metal easy to work with in the construction of the flute, but impossible to repair. (The flutes are cast instead of forged.) These truly are "disposable flutes." Dents can not be removed from pot metal, ribs and posts can not be reattached with solder, and the tenons can not be adjusted. The silver plating is microscopically thin and will wear off quickly. Even worse, the silver plating is often applied with chemicals containing cyanide. (I wonder if they take the time to wash these chemicals off?) The metal underneath is grey and ugly. Spare parts are not available since it is always unknown which factory they came from. Either way, these factories do not sell spare parts anyway. There is no music store that I know of that would even attempt to repair a chinese flute. And I have seen some rather shocking construction defects on these flutes over the years.
Choosing a good brand
What should I buy? Good flutes are made by good brands. Enough said, end of story. No exceptions. The sellers of the Chinese instruments I described above will claim that their brand is famous, well known, and high quality. Sometimes they exaggerate; most often they out and out lie. Most of those brands are not brands at all. The Chinese factories that sell these flutes sell them completely unmarked with no brand or serial number. The American importers engrave their own American sounding names onto the flutes, along with a meaningless serial number. When enough bad reputation spreads around the internet they just change the brand name.
How do I know the good brands from the imposters? Don't listen to anything the seller tells you. Anyone, anything. Don't even listen to me. I won't write out a list of good brands and bad brands because I want to be impartial, and I think such information could get me sued. Search on Google the name of the brand. If a large professional company website is displayed at the top of the page, it's a good brand. Try searching "Gemeinhardt flute". You'll see what I mean. If you can't find a large professional company website for the brand itself on the first page of results, (not the music store selling the brand) then don't buy it!
Why I won't just list the bad brands for you: I don't want to be accused of libel. There are some big companies in the Chinese instrument business, and they have good lawyers. There has been a large $20 million + lawsuit recently. . . And if any of these rip-off sellers are reading this right now: Ha ha you can't sue me.
What I can say objectively without being sued:
Gemeinhardt is the largest exclusive manufacturer of flutes and piccolos in the world. Their 2SP model is the top selling flute and the second best selling band instrument in the U.S.A. This is according to Gemeinhardt's own press releases, which can be read on Gemeinhardt's website.
Gemeinhardt flutes for sale in my store!
The Conn-Selmer Inc, America's largest manufacturer of musical instruments for band and orchestra, owns both Armstrong and Emerson as well as Bundy (discontinued) and Selmer. This is also information from their website.
Yamaha is the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments, according to their website. Their top selling student flute is the YFL-221 model.
There are many really good brands which are not seen on eBay very often and do not have category names listed for them. Make sure you do your research (google search) before buying one of these flutes to verify that it is actually a good brand.
Obviously, I'm sure there are some good honest Chinese instrument manufacturers out there who make good flutes. (I just haven't heard of any.) I am not racist and I have nothing against Chinese people or Chinese businesses.
Identifying a good flute
I've found a good brand. How do I know if this particular flute is any good? Do some quick research on the brand's web page about that particular model. If that model is no longer listed on the website, it's probably an old discontinued model and not worth buying. Browse through the features, reading about the various options and technical aspects of the flute to make sure it has all the features you want and need. For example, is it open hole or closed hole? Does it have a C foot or a B foot? Silver plated or nickel plated? If you don't know what these most basic features mean then you should go back and do some more research before buying.
Judge the condition of the flute, especially the pads. Dents, dings and scratches indicate that a flute has been well used and may need repairs. However, these particular problems have no affect on the playability of the flute. The pads are the most important thing. If the pads are worn, they will need to be replaced in the near future. This service costs at least $150-$300 at a music store, or $100 plus shipping on ebay (if you trust them). Try to buy a flute that has been played very little, or ask the seller for a picture of the pads. Good pads will be yellow and flat, bad ones are white or grey and lumpy or fuzzy. Furthermore, ask the seller if the flute plays perfectly. Ask for a sound clip via email. Why is the seller selling this flute? If it is because the seller's child dropped out of band after a few months, well then, the flute could actually have been the problem. Flutes, even those by good brands, sometimes have defects or just don't play right. You don't want one of these. You want to buy a flute which the seller's child played successfully for a year then decided to upgrade to an intermediate level flute. These often play well since good players usually take care of their flutes. Still, it may need work.
Your best bet for a beginner flute
The only flutes that are guaranteed to play well are those which have been completely overhauled by the seller. These flutes are used but have all new pads and corks. This is your best bet, they will not need additional repairs. Ask if the seller replaced all the pads and corks. If they only replace the ones that leak, well then, the other old ones will likely leak as well. Pads are like spark plugs. You must change all of them at the same time, or you will be in the shop for repairs every other month as they wear out one by one.
Overhauled flutes for sale can be found in the store: Fine Flutes and Piccolos
How are flutes overhauled? The process of overhauling a flute is a precise art that takes much practice and training to do correctly. I do not recommend that you try to overhaul your own flute. It's possible to learn, but it takes much practice and frustration before you get it right. Minor repairs, like replacing a felt bumper or resetting the tuning cork, is easier and can be done by anyone.
The typical methods for replacing pads. Many music stores and other repairers only repad student flutes. There is a reason for this. The techniques that they use are quick and full of shortcuts. You see, the hardest part of replacing the pads is leveling the pads over the tone hole so that there are no leaks. This is a frustrating process that involves taking the flute apart and putting it back together many times. Tiny leaks the thickness of a human hair will prevent a flute from playing at all. What music stores do is they wet the pads and heavily clamp them down so that they are molded over the tone hole. The flute is then put in an oven to dry the pads into their current position. This is a great shortcut and yields good results, but the life of the pads will be less, and they are less stable. Pads are made of felt, so when you wet them and dry them they become like a dry sponge (they keep the shape they're in). But when the pads get wet again from playing (condensation and spit) they lose their shape and swell up again like a sponge. This is how leaks are created.
For information on flute care and maintenance, view my guide Flute Care and Maintenance for Students and Beginners
What is the best method for replacing pads? Skilled repairers, such as myself, don't use the oven technique. Instead, we use a variety of shims the thickness of wax paper (.001 inches thick) to carefully level each pad perfectly, so that it does not need to be "mashed" into place in order to seal. This is the method which is used for professional flutes. (A professional overhaul can cost $1000. Seriously.) This method takes time, almost an hour per pad. (There are 16 of them). For a music store which charges $30 per hour of labor, this is too slow. How can I afford to spend this much time on each flute I repair? I am not a music store, and I find the whole process rather enjoyable. The profit that I make per flute that I sell ends up being a lot less than minimum wage per hour.
An overhauled, used flute like this one is your best bet on ebay.
Make sure you ask for better pictures than this one, though.
So your having trouble finding a good flute that fulfills all the requirements above while still being cheap? You can buy a Gemeinhardt 2sp for $90, but most of the time you'll need $150 of work put into it to play well. Or, you can buy an overhauled Gemeinhardt for $200 which will never need work. Still too expensive? I'm sorry, but I must refer you to Economic rule #1. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH. Or a cheap one, for that matter. You get what you pay for. If it looks too good to be true. . . Unless you have the years of experience it takes to spot a good flute right away, don't expect a killer bargain. On eBay, you will get a bargain regardless. Your main goal is to not get ripped-off. Sorry, but this is the real truth of things.
Notes:
Questions can no longer be answered by me due to Ebay's new messaging system, which blocks all communications other than those from buyer/seller. Sorry.Any seller who would like to post a link in their auctions to this guide may do so.
Any junk seller who sends me a threatening or angry email will have that email posted here for the world to see. Rip-off sellers, consider yourselves exposed.
About me: I am a flutist and music educator with much experience in flute repair and the flute market in general. (Member of the NFA, National Flute Association). I have taught flute for many years to many brilliant students. I fix up flutes as a hobby and sell them on ebay every so often for a small profit. My goal is to educate students and their parents about the flute market so that they can make wise decisions in purchasing a flute. Hopefully, we can drive some of these scammers and rip-off sellers out of business as well.
Visit my Ebay Store: Fine Flutes and Piccolos
Guide created: 03/24/06 (updated 11/03/09)
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