I have to disagree here. Only the less enlightened teachers would ever consider a Plateau Mura as inferior to a similar flute with open holes. If they're so poorly informed, odds are you don't want to be working with them anyway. Not to mention that any reasonably qualified teacher should recognize that a Muramatsu (closed hole or not) is a very good intermediate/pro flute, and there is no reason for them to suggest further upgrades purely for an openhole flute. If they feel that the student has grown out of their current model (say they're playing an EX and are beyond what it can do, for example), then it would not be unusual for them to suggest an upgrade, but only a pretty poor teacher would suggest a change in flutes just to get their pupil playing on an openhole model if the Plateau model they're playing still suits them. I'm not advocating that you special order a Plateau version of whatever you choose, just that you should keep your options open. John, please be careful what you are putting into people's heads with your posts (even inadvertently)....Even small things like suggesting a student will be pestered down the line for not buying a particular type of flute can have a big impact on their final decision. As I mentioned above, it's best to keep all your options open, play as many flutes within your price range as you can, and then go with the one that suits you best.john101 wrote:Plus even though you kicked out $3500 for a closed hole Muramatsu EX, your going to constantly hear every teacher and professor continue to suggest you upgrade to an open hole flute. Why would you want to deal with that?
John
In any case, it can be pretty difficult to sell a flute at this level regardless of what options it has. Open hole flutes can sit in consignment for months or years without being purchased (take some of the instruments even at Fluteworld, for example), while you may find a buyer locally for a closed hole instrument (jazzers love mid-level plateau flutes), or vice versa. If worse comes to worst, should you purchase a closed hole model, you can almost certainly sell it in the European market, as the standard configuration there is a Plateau/C foot. I think it's poor policy to buy a flute based on the future, as I've mentioned before. You might wish to upgrade later, or you might decide the Mura (or whatever you select) suits you fine and stick with it for the rest of your life. There's also the possibility the you'll decide to stop playing, or any number of contingencies. You need to buy the flute that suits you best now without regard to what future teachers or potential buyers might think of it, or what you MIGHT choose to do down the line. Keep playing flutes, and when you find the right flute, don't worry too much about the options. It's far more important to have a flute that suits you well in a general sense (i.e. one that allows you to do everything you want from a musical standpoint) than to have open holes, or a split E, or a B foot, etc. etc.
This also is not necessarily accurate. Whether or not you're buying used, what company is making/made the flute, what area you're buying from, condition, and how much hand work is actually involved will all have a big impact on price. You can get partially handmade flutes for about $1500. Or you can get a fully handmade instrument beginning in the 4-5K price range, but the definition of a handmade flute (or an intermediate, introductory pro, etc.) varies too much from person to person and maker to maker for a generalization about price to even be realistic (much less accurate).Take into consideration all of the handmade flutes will start at $3000
