Hullo all,
i'm well overdue an upgrade on my beloved little student flute, i'm grade 8 and have been looking at buying the YAMAHA YFL-674-H with e mech
Has anyone got one? What do you think of them? Of Yamaha in general? (I have a Yamaha AltoSax and Clarinet, but i'm not sure on flute :/)
Love,
Melanie
~xx

Ive owned a Yamaha 574 in the past and it was quite nice with a really good head and mechanism. For the price the 674 is at, you could do better by getting a solid head flute by a japanese maker such as altus or miyazawa, would be better in the long run.

In general, my experience, and that of others I've talked to is that the Yamahas in this range sound very good when you try them, but lack the potential that other manufacturers' headjoints have - in other words, as you get better, the range of things you can do with them is limited.

I'm with sags on this one. The Myatt website shows the 674 at £1875. For that amount of money, you really need to go and try other flutes, ie. the Miyazawa 302, Altus 907, Powell Sonare, Sankyo 201 etc. There's a lot of choice out there, and you need to find the one that feels right to spend that kind of money!

Out of interest, the Yamaha 500 and 600 series have an "EC head" - anyone know what this is?

I have one, and it's really good When I bought it I tried other flutes but I liked the Yamaha the best. But it's up to what you personally like, really.

I answered this in another post but here it is again. It is the Yamaha hand cut headjoint. I think the EC is the cut name and they have a selection of cuts to choose from, dont think they are available in the UK though.

Thank-you all for the replies ^-^
~xx

(I don't know if links are allowed here, so sorry if they're not)
I'll be purchasing it from here; http://www.thomann.de/gb
(Whatever flute I get) Any suggestions?
It has to have a solid silver headjoint, open keys, e mech
~xx

Yes, links are allowed

I think when you're spending that amount of money, you really need to go and try them out for youself. Is there a local, good music shop? Or have you thought about going into London to somewhere like Topwind?

I'll be trying them out ^-^
I'm just a little lost with all of the makes and stuffs

i got my YAMAHA YFL-674 opened holes solid silver body and plated silver keys after my grade 8 but to be honest i am a little regret that i didn't pay some more(£800!!!!!) to get the Powell.

btw do you think 647 is enough for music college?? i don't have money to buy another one

Some flute players/teachers are quite snobby about flute brands, I read comments one conservatory teacher made about applying for conservatoire, and they expected applicants to play on a handmade flute! If only we all had enough money!
The mechanism should be fine but you could probably do with a better headjoint if you are considering music college. I am thinking of getting the Powell signature, and maybe if my budget allows the handmade conservatory model!

Oh, well when I went, I went with my flute teacher, we had a price limit, and we just tried all the flutes they had in the shop. I didn't go thinking I wanted XYZ

I have a freind who is at RSAMD in glasgow and she plays a Sankyo Silversonic with closed holes and a c foot - nothing special and she does fine!

It is possible to do well in a conservatoire with an intermediate flute. One of the flute players from an all conservatoire flute section apart from me was playing an Altus 907! She is now in her 3rd year of study, but think she is looking to upgrade.



the others played a 9k aurumite and 14k aurumite flute!!!!!!!! (JEALOUS! )

I currently own a yamaha 614 flute and it is great. I think it is the closed hole version of the one you are suggesting. I am upgrading soon, maybe to a miyazawa, but that doesn't mean that my current flute is not good.

The best way to judge which flute is best to buy is to go and try them out.

I think i might have to down grade soon My lymes is attacking my shoulder at the moment and playing my flute is causing agony so may have to go back to just solid head which will be very upsetting. I do have a pearl 505RBE coming in the post this week that I bought out of interest, may have to be more than that- i'm soooo peeved.

Oh no!!!! What do you mean by lymes?

PS you seem to be buying lots of flutes recently!!!

Oi'm wid' dem . The main attraction of the 500-700 series are a better quality flute that is reliable and is easy on the purse. However, it is still designed to be not too hard to play, which means that some "choices" about tone production are not left up to the player, but are limited by the cut or shape or position of holes (both key holes and lip-plate hole, but most especially the lip-plate tone hole).

You should at least try a different headjoint, preferably taking your time over it, because a headjoint that offers you more choices also makes the work harder for you until you are used to it. The 600 and 700 bodies are nice, reliable bodies with a kind of boy-next-door security about them , so please do try them, but if I were you and if I were very rich, and talented enough to be thinking about study at university level, I'd be looking at a headjoint that can offer you more.

The best of the 700 (silver body, silver keys) models are getting close to the price of the all-handmade 800 series, and there is a kind of "crossover" 711/781 series which is basically an economy 800 series flute with an unusual advanced EC-light headjoint, but I don't know if it's in the UK, and even if it is, it's in price range where you should be looking at other flute brands and only choosing the Yamaha if you like it best, not because it's cheapest.

You may want a bright, carrying sound for solo work, or you may want something with lots of bang for orchestral work - each flute maker has a characteristic sound, and the best-regarded flute brands don't just cost more because they're "better", but because they offer many more variations of design and material at each level, whereas Yamaha only offers a few models, which saves a lot of money both in design/research and in manufacturing.

You should remember that the handmade Yamaha 800 flutes are made in a different factory, by different people, so you are not just getting "more handmade work", you are essentially getting a different brand of flute. I haven't played one, so I couldn't even tell you how they compare to other Yamahas!

The 500-700 series all share the same body design and headjoint. 600 series - silver head with silver nickel body and keys, 700 silver head and body with silver-nickel keys, 700 silver head and body with silver keys.

They all have drawn tone holes (pulled up out of the metal the flute body is made of, not stuck on separately - this makes the flute strong, because bad soldering is a problem, but the very "best" flutes are usually not made this way. However, the design of the body is no the same as the 200-400 series (though not dissimilar probably), and it has a lot more work done on it - annealing of the inside of the flute, hand-cut angle of each hole etc.

The headjoint is the "EC" type, which in Yamaha-speak means a high-set lip-plate/tone-hole to make life easy when playing low notes, and a "C" taper, which lies between the "crank up the voume" sharply stepped Y taper used in the beginner flutes, and the straight G taper used in *some* of the more advanced Yamaha headjoints so that you have more control over your sound (but you have to work harder, because there's also more resistance).

Long long long discussion on comparing low-end pro-model flutes!

Its a disease carried by ticks and comes from sheep and red deer. After a while it attacks nervous system and joints. I've been on two courses of anti bioltics but just can't shift it and the Consultant here isn't too up on lymes disease as its more common on the west coast and islands where I got it. Bit useless!

I know, far too many flutes, but the three together ones are for repair and the 505 was something I bought out of interest back in December but it hasn't arrived yet. Hopefully I can do them up and set up at flutes for flute fund and get some money together to buy a really nice flute, or at this rate, a superb head joint! It could take a while!