I inherited a new flute pupil a few weeks ago who has a J. Michael flute. I'd never heard of these before. This morning I had a Kevin Mayhew catalogue in the post, and these flutes were listed for £99. This seems a bit too good to be true! I wondered whether anyone else had experience of these flutes, particularly in terms of their reliabilty?

I too saw this in the Mayhew catalogue today.... I'd say if it seems too good to be true, it probably is! It's this whole thing of music shops buying in bulk form China etc, planting their name on them and selling them very reasonably. The problem is that it's too early days to comment on how well they'll last! A large music store in the north of England has been selling a range of wind instruments for a couple of years now- the flutes are tarnishing, and do stay stay regulated for long. The clarinets have bits dropping off...

Bear in mind though that ther ARE exceptions to the rule, and that there's lots of GOOD stuff coming from over there too!