Practicing repairs on a cheap instrument

[SteveNaz]

About 10 or 15 years ago, just for fun, I bought a closed-hole Italian made Silvertone (Sears Roebuck?) at a flea market. Besides "Silvertone" and "Made in Italy," it has a slightly crooked 1668, which looks more like a serial number than a model number. At any rate, I had a grand time replacing the pads and trying to get a few notes out of it. But, before I take it apart again and maybe run it all through an ultrasonic cleaner, I was hoping someone could confirm that it’s not worth more than a couple of dollars. I noticed that the pads on either side of the G# key act as one piece, so they always open and close together. Would that peg this as a low-end instrument? From the wooden case, I would guess this is from the 1960s. Thanks for any guidance. I've played lots of instruments, but never the flute.

[pied_piper]

A Silvertone flute is not a valuable flute. I would say practice your repairs on it all you want. The two G keys that you asked about are indeed joined together on all standard closed G# flutes that 99% of flutists play.

[SteveNaz]

Thank you for taking the time to reply with that useful information. It is exactly what I needed.