"Cereal Number"

[flutesong]

A little humor for a Monday, but a bona fide question -
I am looking at a nice Artley alto flute, and the seller has said they could not see a serial number on the instrument. Does this strike anyone as bogus, or are there true instances of this? Tx. much.

[fingerbun]

I would expect a serial # on any Artley. Not sure where it might be on an Alto.

http://www.conn-selmer.com/content/reso ... rialno.php

I can tell you that my Artley doesn't have a model number. But definitely has a serial #.

[pied_piper]

Like fingerbun said, Artley flutes should always have a serial number. However, there is one circumstance where it might not have one. If the barrel (headjoint receiver) had been damaged beyond repair and replaced, or changed to fit a different headjoint, a replacement part would not have a serial number.

[fingerbun]

Dumb question, I know, but I am still learning about all this stuff, hence why I am here.

I think of Artleys as entry level (not always true, I know but generally so). And what you have described sounds a bit major. Would such a repair be worth the cost on an entry level flute?

[pied_piper]

Actually, it would be a fairly simple repair. Unsolder the old barrel, cleanup the old solder, attach the new barrel and solder it into place. Might need to refit the head joint, but that's easy too. The whole procedure would take less than 30 minutes. The labor would be probably $30-$40 at today's rates in many shops. The hard part today, would be finding a replacement barrel.

Today, on an old Artley student model C flute, it probably would not be worth it, but on an alto flute, maybe not. Besides, if that is what happened in this case, it might have happened many years ago before Artley's reputation hit the skids and it would have made sense to repair.