Flute buying

Poppy9

Where is the best and cheapest place to buy a flute from. I want new not second hand. It's for a beginner (age 10) who has been playing for a few months.

Currently we get free lessons and insturment hire (yamaha 211s) at school but I am looking to buy her own flute now.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Trow

Have a look in the grabbit thread at the thread about guitars for under £50 with amp - there were flutes for iirc £39.99 mentioned there - probably not brilliant but I would imagine suitable for a beginner.

I'll just go and get the link.

Trow

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=91375 the thread is here - the place selling the guitars has a wind (I think) section - just do a search for flute and hopefully you'll find it.

hjd

My daughter hired one from our local music shop - once you have paid for 24 months' rental you own the flute, and it's not much more than buying it outright. She traded in her old one at Top Wind http://www.topwind.com/instrume/flautas.htm who sell new and second-hand ones. The hire scheme is good as you can upgrade - we have had to buy a better one after a few years when the beginners' one is no longer suitable.

marakie

Our daughter has lessons at school with the county peripatetic flute teacher. We enquired with her as to where we could buy a flute and she has pointed us to a scheme run by the county that allows us to buy an instrument at reduced cost via the school. The school orders the instrument from a supplier in the south and we pay the school. We live in Warwickshire.

Sharra

One thing to think of when buying musical instruments is that a lot of the time you get what you pay for. I've seen shops selling violins for £25 new, saxes for under £100 new etc which is crazily cheap - if you buy an instrument that cheaply, they usually won't have a good tone which can be very disheartening for a beginner who is struggling to get a good sound at the best of times.
My advice would be to ask your daughter's flute teacher what she recommends and get the best quality you can afford - a good instrument will last her to higher grades anyway

Poppy9

I still haven't bought a flute as I spent all my money on a classical guitar for DD for Xmas!!!

Anyway she has to give back school flute in July so need to press on. As previously mentioned teacher only recomends Yamaha 211. I can buy through the assisted purchase scheme which will save me the VAT. The teacher gave me some numbers to ring but they all came in over £300. Today I found on the web www.musical-instrumentsuk.co.uk who are quoting just £270 + £5 delivery. They seem to be based in Scotland but I'm waiting for an email to advise. I did try www.dv247.com who have shops nearer to where I live. Their website did boast a price promise yesterday but when I emailed the address given [email="pricebeat@digitalvillage.co.uk"]pricebeat@digitalvillage.co.uk[/email] they told me they coudn't match the price. Notice promise has gone from website today!! Not really the sort of company I want to do business with.