17 hole "signature"

[dgpalmquist71]

Hi all,
My upstairs neighbor has her deceased son's flute. Just curious about it. Sorry i have no pics of it
, and I know nothing about flutes except everyone says they're hard to play. I counted 17 holes which are all closed. Not sure if that is considered "17 hole", but they're closed finger pads and it has a fancy looking "Signature" logo on it just a little ways below the amberchure hole.... probly spelled that wrong... anyway, just wondering,
... if it has 17 spots with the the felt gasket and moving piece that covers and uncovers a hole, if that makes it a "17 hole" .... because, doing searches i found lots of 16 hole "Signature" flutes but none of the 17 closed holes. I believe it is silver plated. Any insight you might be able to give would help to gratify my curiousity-or make it worse_ . I'll be sure to check back and answer questions if you have any. Thank you in advance. God bless and play on, flute makes a LOVELY sound indeed.

[pied_piper]

That may be a Powell Signature flute.
https://powellflutes.com/flutes/signature

If you contact Powell Flutes and give them the serial number, they should be able to tell for sure if it was made by them.

If so, it is a nicely made instrument for advanced students, amateurs, or even semi-professional players. Not quite a full professional instrument, but very nice nonetheless. For your question about 16 vs. 17 holes, that designation is used only by Chinese flutes. In Western countries, counting holes is not the convention. In the good old USA, a 16 hole flute has a C foot while a 17 hole flute has a B foot.

[dgpalmquist71]

. I did count the holes again and there are 17. Not including the mouthpiece and the hole on the end. I'm guessing it is a 16 hole. I guess my question now is; does a 16 hole flute actually have 17 holes? This particular flute looks a lot more like a hi_Sonic signature series as opposed to Powell signature. The only hi_sonic signature series flutes i can find are 16 hole. Again, this IS a closed hole style. Wish i could put my pics of it on here without having to post it somewhere on the internet. Thanks again.

[pied_piper]

There is a restriction that new members cannot post photo attachments until they have shown that they are not a spammer. After you have made a few more approved posts, the system will allow you to post photos.

[dgpalmquist71]

Cool. Thanks. Make sense. So then, does a 16 hole flute have 17 holes like this one does?

[dgpalmquist71]

Cool. Makes sense. Thank you. So, does a 17 hole flute have 16 holes then?

[pied_piper]

A flute with 16 holes has 16 holes, 17 has 17. But as I stated in my previous post, we don't classify flutes by the number of holes. Look at the footjoint (the smallest section). If it has 3 holes it is a C foot, 4 holes is a B foot.