Flute keys "clicking"

[joolz]

I've had my Muramatsu GX 111 flute now since just before Christmas and in the last few weeks I have noticed a strange little noise coming from the keys when I play. Sometimes it's there when I just lift the flute up to play and don't actually press anything down. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.

I took it to a Muramatsu technician (not where I bought it from) and of course it wouldn't make the noise and he couldn't find anything wrong with it but he did mention that he thought some of the keys felt a little loose.

Since practicing I have noticed it here and there and then today after a big 1 and a half hours of practicing it became very obvious. When I pressed all the left hand keys on the barrel (not on the foot joint) they make a little clicking noise. It seems to have nothing to do with the pad because it happens as I'm depressing the key (so the key hasn't closed at all when it makes the noise). It is a definite click and it almost sounds like oil boiling - you know those little click or clink noises that you get when oil is very hot.

I ended up making a little video on my camera of it happening but of course I dont' know how to post that anywhere so I have to wait for my husband to come home in order to let me know if I can post it.

Now, I bought this flute from a company that sells online (overseas) and my local dealer tells me that this means that it is a "grey market" flute which means that he says Muramatsu will not give me a warranty for it. The company themselves offer a one year warranty but I'm not sure how all of this is going to work since it may be a fixable issue but then again it may actually just be something Im going to have to live with.

I'm not very happy and right now I just feel like sending the flute back but because I've had it for two months now, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be interested in giving me my money back since I've been playing it all this time too.

Are there any technicians out there who have come across this kind of thing before? Other than that the flute seems to play fine and this is causing me all kinds of stress because bar the car, this is the most expensive thing I own !!!

Joolz

[pied_piper]

Don't be too upset about this. It does not sound like a major problem. It's probably something simple to correct like a spring moving in it's saddle, but yes, it can be VERY annoying.

Since you indicate that it is intermittent, it's occurance may be related to temperature. Your statement that it seemed worse after 1 1/2 hours of practice leads to that conclusion, since the flute would be warmer after playing for a while. Try it again when the flute is not warmed-up and see if it still does it. When the technician checked it, had you just brought it in from a cold car?

As far as getting it fixed, if the local dealer won't honor the warranty, then your choices are to ship it back overseas where you bought it (assuming THEY honor the warranty) or pay the local dealer/technician to fix it. For a relatively minor problem like this, the shipping and insurance changes could easily equal or exceed the cost to repair it locally. That's the unfortunate risk one takes when dealing with remote vendors. Yes, they are frequently cheaper initially, but when you factor in shipping costs for warranty service, it is frequently false economy.