No notes playing from new Trevor James - help!

[Ros]

Hello,
I have just started teaching a friend's daughter to play the flute. Her grandparents have bought her a new Trevor James (10 x E 49201) but I can't get a note out of it. The note from the mouthpiece alone is fine compared to my Yamaha mouthpiece, but once the whole flute is put together none of the notes from the middle section can be played. I have checked the seals around the padding of each key and they appear to be fine. Does anyone have any ideas about what the problem might be? I did take it to my local music shop where is was suggested that the flute itself might be faulty, but I hoped there might be a simpler solution that might prevent us from having to return the flute.
Thanks very much!
Ros

[pied_piper]

If you are a flutist yourself and cannot play any notes, then it should be obvious that there is a problem with the flute. You mentioned that you checked the seal of each pad. However, a simple visual inspection cannot determine how well a pad is sealing unless it is a glaringly obvious fault. It's nearly impossible to visually inspect the entire circumference of a pad because the mechanism obscures a portion of most pads. The tolerance for a pad sealing properly is less than the thickness of a human hair. Even a very small leak on the upper end of the flute can prevent the entire flute from playing properly.

It might be something simple such as a trill key spring has become unhooked or it could be a bent key, damaged/defective tone hole, leaky or torn pad, etc. A pad can look perfectly fine but still leak very badly for a variety of reasons. The list of possibilities goes on.

You mentioned that you took it to a local music shop, but I gather that it is not the shop where the flute was purchased. In this case you have two options: For warranty repair/replacement, return it to the store from which it was purchased or pay the local shop to repair it.

[mirwa]

Yep, sounds like a trill key unsprung

[Bo]

I agree with pied_piper. When I first read the title of the thread I thought maybe it's a newbie, but if you are good enough to teach, obviously there is a problem with the flute.