5 Karat Gold Flute - Some Advice

[Maria Benck]

Hi!!! I’m a professional flutist from Brazil.
Here we don’t have many factories or even music stores specialized on flutes and
I need some advice about a problem that I have with my Sankyo 5K gold flute. I
decided to write to the forum asking for help from other flutists /repairmen
that probably had or knew the same problem. I bought my Sankyo 5 K Gold flute in
1997. I received very good information about this new Sankyo model and very
enthusiastic about this information I decided to go to Japan and visit Sankyo
showroom for trying and buying the new flute. The trip was fine and Sankyo’s
personnel were great. The flute still sounds great. The only problem and the
reason of my writing is that since the year 2000 the metal has demonstrated many
signs of corrosion. It’s very strange: these signs are not on contact points.
They are not from usual contact wear and since 2000 they have been spreading
through the whole flute. The most interesting thing is that the only parts that
show no contact wear are the contact points with my hands. The instrument is
very ugly now. Very worried about this problem, I have contacted the factory but
the general manager insisted that the signs are from contact wear and not from
the bad composition of the metal and the solution for the problem would be to
make a 18 k gold plating on the instrument, but the factory is not responsible
for any changing in the sound (I really think that the sound will change)
Please, if there is someone who had the same problem with this brand and model
of flute I would be happy to know about it. I need to show and proof to Sankyo
that it’s not an isolated case. I have heard about one similar case in Brazil,
but I couldn’t find the flutist. Thank for all who gives attention and support.
Maria

[boglarka]

Dear Maria,

I hope you check this site again, so you can see my reply. Unfortunately, I don't know what the problem is with your flute. I understand that it is a 5K gold flute, so it is an alloy of sorts (gold+some other, harder metal). Therefore, it should not corrode at all. Maybe it's oxydating...if that's the case, you can use silver or gold polish (put some on a Q-tip and rub it gently on the dirty area) and see if it comes off. One good brand of polish is called Wenol (it's German made, I think).

Other than that, I have no idea what might be wrong with the flute. The sound might change slightly if they put the plating on it, but not by much. Most of the sound is determined by the headjoint anyway (and the player, of course).

Anyway, I hope this helps. Good luck!

[Zevang]

Hi Maria,

Please write an email privately to me(in portuguese
I'll give you some advice on the subject.

Zevang
zevang@hotmail.com

[flutepicc06]

I'm sorry, but who is Tom, and what forum are you talking about? I'm not familiar with anything by that name.

[ceciliaflauta]

hi Maria, I had the same problem as you with my sankyo 5k. I decided to send it to the factory in Japan and they put 18k gold outside. The sound changed a lot, but on my point of view it got so much better, it is really very personal, the sound gets darker...i like it really much much better now, and I never had signs of oxidation again.
Hope it helps you to make a decition.
good luck
Cecilia

[vernuskloyz]

its not about the traffic, its just in the wrong section. i put it in the Off-Topic section because i mentioned Flickr, but its for any comments or questions about my projects - not everyone has Yahoo, so... maybe the Artwork section would be better?

thanks