Hi - I am in the midst of what so far is a rather daunting task... obtaining a 'new' flute for the missus. From what I have seen and read so far I am leaning heavily towards the Pearl 795 (or other favorably comparable Pearl) as I am a reliability freak (I ride BMW motorcycles and use Apple computers etc) and so far it seems that Pearl is favoured in that regard.
I don't mind spending a bit but certainly want to keep the purchase affordable - you'll notice i didn't sign in as Wealthy Dude. Ideally I will be able to keep it around 2000 or less, new or used, and hope to obtain the best flute for the buck.
Naturally I have checked E-bay, the Pearl website, and with my local multi-brand dealer (who seems puzzled himself on many issues but is steadfast in promoting Pearl reliability)

My puzzle comes in attempting to sort out the many Pearl models that have been made and attempting to rank and value them (if a 5yr old discontinued model was 5000 and today is 2000, it may be a better buy than a new 2000 model... maybe?)

So, what I hope to find here, is a source that will help me figure out relative quality/desirability, and relative value for the many new and used Pearls available.
Gosh - that should be simple.... right? *chuckle*

all help muchly appreciated, and hoping one day I may become Learned Dude! (and earn the undying gratitude of the missus)

Yes! our local ..Pearl dealer, has no Pearl flutes for .. to-dayyyy.
We also have a Yamaha dealer who I have visited with, and a Powell dealer (I hope to contact today) that is in a record/cd store. One other dealer carries a hodge-podge of student models. So far the overview for trying out models in this grade without considerable travel are bleak. (we do an annual trip thru Salt Lake and near LA so may be able to try there if we have come up dry).

Chances of trying out models in stores so far seem to promise large enough gaps between trying them out that memory of the last will have faded.

Right now she plays a well worn-out Selmer she has had for so long she can play it with its idiosyncacies. (another player tried it recently and was astounded she could play it, for he could not). She is self taught, plays by ear, mostly rock and jazz for herself, at parties or in jams. She generally defers large ticket purchases to me and is generally happy with what I finally get, so I get the task of research and shopping. Would I love to try before buying? - Absolutey! (absoflutely?) But realistically this will most likely be possible.
While I was dedicated to the care and cleaning and storage of my own instruments, she has a somewhat... cavalier approach to instrument care and storage (from my viewpoint anyhoo), hence extra emphasis on reliability

So far my research has suggested that the favorite options seem to be: open hole, offset G, and split E. Beyond that it seems if that the others are nice if you can get them for no extra charge, or if you are a demanding professional.

Puzzled Dude...

You can contact me if you want to sort those out. Send me a PM and I can get you info, value, specs, etc for any models you are looking at.

Joe B

Pearl Flutes Product Specialist
Nashville, TN

NotEnoughCoffeeDude "But realistically this will most likely be IMpossible."

She might not actually LIKE the open holes. Be sure that the flute comes with either cheap plastic plugs, or some Powell Plug-O's (a lot more expensive but I like them, they seal well, you can take them out easily, and they are silver-colored so the flute looks like a closed-hole model.)

If her Selmer is closed hole, and she is self-taught, she will not likely find much use for the open holes anyway. They do NOT change the tone, sound, etc on a flute. They can help with some oddities, like alternate fingerings in a difficult passage, or micro-tone trills. In any case, the open holes will take some time to get used to.

Speak with JoeB, and possibly someone at Flute World, and see if you can't get those 6 flutes SENT to you by UPS so she can try them all at once. You can generally put them all on a credit card, and have the money (minus shipping) refunded before you have to pay the credit card bill. I would definitely take a look at the Muramatsu, Altus and Azumi, they have great reviews.

I have played a Pearl Elegante for 3 yrs now and like it more each time I play it and have had zero problems with it. If you live in the US you can trial a number of flutes at one time-for over a week from places like Fluteworld. I did that when I bought my Pearl. I tested an Almadeus, Muramatsu and Pearl for over a week then ordered a 4 th model to trial. It was great to play them in different rooms with different acoustic and get a feel for them over time- rather than one hour at a music store etc. The people at Fluteworld were very accomodating to me. Home trial is a great way to give your wife a chance to try before you buy. I went from a closed hole flute to open hole- it took no time on most keys but a couple of hours on others to get used to it. Never looked back and no regrets. The Pearl did come with plastic plugs in the holes (which I have saved in a bag for????). I removed the plugs from my flute but I know of a very accomplished flutist who still uses plugs in her Haynes and will probably never take them out. I do like the shape a feel of open holed flute keys better than the closed hole keys but that is my preference. Good luck with your purchase.

Dont just limit yourself to one brand. Let her try as many brands as possible until she finds the one she likes best. Although pearl is a good brand, here are some other brands she may like:

Yamaha
Trevor James
Sonare
Demedici
Murmatsu
etc.

Local Powell dealer is also Trevor James, so we had a chance to quickly look at both, unfortunately not on one of mama's best days. We passed on the TJ, and the Powell she tried was a 5k model (lowest he had) - outside our practical range for sure. She left unimpressed, but on another day it may have been a different story.
There is certainly a limited assortment of flutes available in our part of Canada. Yamaha dealer had 4 models in stock, Pearl dealer has none, Powell had about 40 flutes. The remainder appear to be various student models.
I take kindly the suggestions to look at other brands as mentioned, but there appears to be no dealer for them in this area. I am sure there are some other fine flutes out there, but to buy sight unseen, I feel most comfortable going for reputed reliability. If anyone can offer (in this price range) alternate brands with superior mechanical reliability, I'm all ear.. er... eyes...

We have opportunities to aquire new 785 CE, 795 RBE, and used 850 model. (850 being closed hole). All fall within our range. Any opinions on comparison of these models would be welcome.

Cheers!

If she is only playing for fun, then I don't see anything wrong with just a basic Yamaha 221. Save your cash and don't spend it on all the upgrades that she most likely will never need or use. If she does play Jazz though, open holes may be something she could use however. Split E's solid silver, gold, B foot... not needed.

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A Powell (LOVE THEM!) would be overkill in my opinion unless she was going to earn money playing the flute to pay for it! They are crazy expensive as are all the handmade flutes! I myself and not a fan of the intermediate line Pearls as they are not the most comfortable in my hands and I don't produce the type of sound I would like. I did however like a handmade 14K gold model by them. It has been the only gold flute that I have played that I liked the sound of. Go figure!

If you don't want to spend a ton of money on the *really good* handmade models, then Yamaha and Azumi are tops on my list. I was impressed with the Lyric line.

I still don't quite understand why you don't want to look into having several flutes sent to your house, at the same time, for a week's trial. This is a great way to narrow down a search and compare without the stress of sitting in the shop, on a bad day.

I have a Pearl 501-E (a closed-hole, C-foot, silver-plated flute) that I like very well. It is my backup flute, and my expensive pro headjoints ($850 for the most expensive silver one I have, $400 for the other one) both fit into it and make the flute deoightfully responsive. The silver-plate stock headjoint on the Pearl is nice, too.

I would see that as an option, too- a Yamaha or Pearl student model with a nice headjoint in it.

If our dealer had any I'd love to get several flutes on try-out. I'd love just being able to SEE several. I'd love even more being able to pay for several up front, but that is not an option (if it were I might just as well buy a Powell that we could try here). On top of that, to get several at one time I would have to import them, pay the duties and taxes, and pretty much ending up eating that amount when I returned unwanted ones. (not to mention the difficulty of finding a US dealer willing to export on a trial basis without full payment) rmember, the goal is to pay around 2k, not tie up 10k in the process. Also the goal is to get her something better, not just a better condition example of what she already has - a student flute.

She has been playing for about 30 years, and since I buy the best of whatever quality item I can afford for myself, I do the same for her. ( if i get a 50k truck, she gets a 50k car..not a 20k runabout). It may sound quirky, but when it comes to me and mine, I buy quality, virtually never something that 'will do'. It's a policy I adopted many years ago, and it has never failed me. To this day, I have never looked back on an item I bought and thought "that was too good for me" or 'I wish I hadn't bought that".

Why would I buy her less when I can afford and easily justify getting her something better? heck - she certainly deserves it just for putting up with me! I do appreciate your thoughts behind trying to save me some bucks tho. Hope that helps with your puzzlement.

Would love to have a selection of headjoints to try also. Realistically, we will have to buy a flute, let her get used to the hj on it, then travel to where we can try an assortment. If you don't know what you have, you can't assess the value of extras. Remember, we have not even seen a Pearl flute yet, let alone a variety of headjoints.

Pearl flutes are fine, but I wouldn't bother with any of the ones that are under $5,000.00 if you want the best. The Japan made ones are better in my opinion. If you want top quality, I wouldn't waste you time on anything like Trevor James, Gemeinhardt or Armstrong just to name a few. Powell, Nagahara, Brannen, Haynes, Miyazawa, Burkart, Williams, Sheridan, Muramatsu are probably more on the quality lines that you are looking for from what you have described. What is your wife looking for in a flute? Perhaps we could help even more if we could chat with her also, since she is the one that will be playing it.

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Okay, I am sorry, I was confused because I read this...

"She has been playing for about 30 years, and since I buy the best of whatever quality item I can afford for myself, I do the same for her. ( if i get a 50k truck, she gets a 50k car..not a 20k runabout). It may sound quirky, but when it comes to me and mine, I buy quality, virtually never something that 'will do'. It's a policy I adopted many years ago, and it has never failed me. To this day, I have never looked back on an item I bought and thought "that was too good for me" or 'I wish I hadn't bought that"."

I later went back and saw that the 5K Powell was not in the price range that you were looking at. So, scrap what I just said.

A good flute, with a nice fluid mechanism for under 4K would be a Muramatsu EX. The Lyric line is nice also. Then you have your more intermediate line (aka glorified student flutes) like Azmumi and Yamaha that are also great.

Sorry for any confussion. It would help us if you could clarify your price range also.

I am looking at 2k give or take 500, and the best flute new or used I can find for that range. So, that seems to put us into mid to high end intermediates, or low end pros.

it's easy to compare new to new, but more difficult when you add in used, ...but potentially more rewarding.

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Our local used market has nothing in this category, and has limited intermediate of any type. It seems folks here must be going straight from students to Powells.

have you tried looking at the pearl 665re it hs the open holes ect that she need but it doesn't have the major expence of being solid silver(which isn'e nessasary at all), but it does have the silver had joint and silverplated body and foot joint, which would benefit her playing and be a good reliable flute. But i would try find another flute with the open holes and make sure she likes the feel of the keys even if it has go anything else she wants it is useful to make sure she likes the open ness of the keys,because they feel entirely differant.

Alot of music stores like the pearl dealers near you will get in an instrument for you to look at with there next shipment even if you don't buy it in the end it will still get sold.