Need help for Christmas, please! :)

[rycyeroc]

Hello all! I'm brand new to this forum and I know extremely little about flutes. My wife played flute in high school and she really wants to get back into it but her student flute is in disrepair and is not of good quality anyways. I'm hoping to get her a new, higher quality/level flute for Christmas but I desperately need some advice! I don't want to get her a student model but I also don't think a professional grade flute would be necessary or in the budget. I've tried to do some research but I just really don't have the proper knowledge so I'm hoping someone here would be willing to help me out. Here are a couple of models I was looking at.. do you think these would be appropriate? Are there better flutes for the price or would paying a little more go a long way? Thanks so much for helping!! Here are the the two I've been looking at so far:

http://www.amazon.com/Gemeinhardt-3OB-O ... emeinhardt

http://www.amazon.com/Pearl-525RB1RB-Qu ... 89%3APearl

[pied_piper]

Both of those are good reputable brands. However, flutists often have definite preferences and it always best to have her try a flute before buying it. You should consider giving her a gift card and then take her shopping...

[Gandalfe]

I would never give a music instrument to any family or friends without having them try it first. For example, in your case one of the flutes has an extended range due to the B foot. A surprising number of flautists don't appreciate it. I do, but then I'm weird that way.

When I started my wife back on clarinet (and eventually flute and sax) I brought in a used high-end clarinet. She hadn't played in +25 years and asked me why her student grade instrument wasn't good enough. So I had her play the full scale of the instrument with a tuner and I marked the deviance from in tune. Then I had her do that with the professional instrument. The student instrument had a deviance from -20 to +15. The pro horn ranged from -5 to +5. She like the sound of the pro horn too, so it was a done deal.

Now she is my best sub for the big band, sax quartet, and theater gigs. I see so many community musicians with horrible instruments that weren't good when new and/or are horribly out of shape. True musicians need nice instruments if you ask me. But let them be a part of the selection process.