I am soo happy because I found a music store that sells flutes in my town!!! Yupiiii!

I can order Yamaha flutes from them. They also carry a few other brands like: Selmer, Roy Benson and Trevor James. I want to get a student flute as an upgrade to my old junk grassi flute. So, what do you think? Should I stick to the 211 Yamaha or should I look at the other flutes too?

(My friend has an 211 Yamaha, I tried it and I liked it. Of course, I could only compare it to my flute and to an old 104 Armstrong...)

and a little info about myself: I am an amateur and play in a brass band. i have been playing the flute for 7 years now.
waiting on your advice!
thanks in advance

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http://www.triola.ro/index.php?pag=prod_.php&codcp=5&codscp=24

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that is a link to the store in my town. those are the flutes they have on stock.

When I had four years of studies, I fet I had overgrown my Gemeinhardt M (also it had started to have pad problems). I decided t upgrade to something much better, as I did not want to change flute agian in a short time. I finally choose a Yamaya YFL 6xx. I think I did a right choice going directly to an intermediate flute.

My suggestion is, (if budget allows) go for something better than the 211. Or choose another brand. Yamahas are told to be a little more expensive than other similar quality brands (but they also have a higher reselling price)

I am sure you will get a lot of useful opinions here (though some will be diverging). AS it has been siad here many times, the best is to buy after trying several instruments and choosing the one you like best and you can afford.

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Bad day for may spelling, sorry:
fet= felt; agian= again; AS=As; siad=said

I would go for a Yamaha or Jupiter if they have any. I just sent you a PM.

well, i can't really try any other brands than yamaha, selmer, roy benson, palatino and trevor james because the shop does not sell other brands. and... i can't spend more than 500 euros on my flute.

Well you are definitely safe with getting a Yamaha. It is the best one (in my opinion) of the brands you listed that the store carries.

If I am going to get it, I just hope it is not going to cost more than 500 euros :D

I bought my Yamaha YFL 674 by Internet at Flute World (USA) on 2007. I have just checked their site and the new Yamahas start at about 800 US$ for the 200 series.

With a budget of 500$ for Yamaha, you will have to look in the used instrument market. Some members here probably can help you lots in this area.

But if you want to buy new, this is my own experience: my instrument costed well over 2000 US$ I could not afford to pay cash for it. So I paid it with VISA credit card and then financed the debt with a bank, so that the interest rate was a reasonable 7% and not the huge 25% that my credit card would apply.

Then I paid a reasonable monthly fee for 10 months and I finished with a good instrument, without much economic suffering.

I tell you this in case it could be an useful idea for you, but I acknowledge that you are young and live in a developing country, so unless you can get financial help from your family it would be difficult to accomplish.

Another idea is to check with used flute shops in London and buy there. It is not so much expensive to travel to London nowadays, but anyway it would consume a part of your budget. And those shops are not cheap (considerably more expensive than USA).

I believe the best alternative would be to buy a used instrument from some of the forum members that would sell it checked and in good condition, so that you do not have the problem of servicing it in your country.

A final advise: if you are temped to buy in Internet (such as in Ebay) beware that, although you can get a good instrument for a good price there, most probably you will get something that will require some technical service and this can be costly at best, provided you have this resources in your country.

Good luck in any case!

well, initially i thought i would upgrade to an intermediate flute (siver headjoint, closed hole). but then, i realised that intermediate flutes are a bit to expensive so i thought i would get a nice new beginner flute (with a good mechanism) and maybe update only my headjoint later on.
apart from being too expensive, i do not know if there is much sense to buy an intermediate flute. i have been playing the flute for 7 years but i only rarely play solos as i am part of a marching band.
so, what i am looking for is a durable, good flute with an ok tone and, most important, with no tuning problems.

btw, i found a new jupiter flute (beginners flute) for a good price. it does have open holes though. is that much of a problem? i did play the clarinet before, so i am used to "covering holes" with my fingers.

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and i would much rather buy from someone from this forum than from ebay. i just trust the people here more (not that i know any of you personally but you sound like honest musicians... :)).

a credit card is out of question. but thank you for the advice though. it's just that i don't play that much (or that good) for a flute that costs over 500 euros.

and i would like a new flute because there are no flute repair specialists in my town :)

That is what I imagined. I have a similar problem here in Madrid. There are some technicians, but I do not trust much, apart from being expensive.

So buying a new instrument could be a wise decision, only that your budget is a little reduced, even for a new YFL 200.

500Eu amount a t this moment to about 740 US$ But a YFL 200 is announced at Flute World for 808 US$ and it is the cheapest there:

"Yamaha YFL-221 Student model, all silver plated, Plateau or closed hole, offset G, C footjoint $808.00"

To this you have to add for shipment and insurance. In any case, I recommend that you ask them for a direct quotation, I've got a better price than the one announced at the WEB!.

You can explain that you are on a low budget and need to upgrade your instrument, maybe they can find you something affordable.

I think that additional costs would add some 40 US$ and you also have the potential problem of your customs tax the and Added Value Tax, so take the whole picture into account.

I had mine taken home personally by a friend who travelled from there, but I was very lucky for that.

My suggestion is to take your time to decide, contact as many people on this Forum and everywhere as you can and let us know how you are advancing.

You will get many opinions and good help, including some contradictory opinions, yes, but I am sure you will finally be able to decide on your own. If your present instrument is still OK, you are not pressed to decide. I spent several months to decide what and where to buy.

You live in Madrid? I visited madrid this sommer and i am applying for a scholarship in madrid... :D well... that's off-topic!

waiting on more advice...

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jose, i have sent you a PM :)