GLORY Silver Plated Intermediate Flute with B Foot

 I am a 55 year old and 46 year flute player who has played professionally on my own recordings, and for radio and TV and taught the flute. I am classically trained but I play jazz and rock flute the most. I record in my home studio as well. I know the flute very well and I am an official flute snob. 😉 I wanted to review this flute since I just got this flute. Out of the box it was in great shape and nothing was broken. It was very clean and shiny and the case and supplies were in good order. I have no complaints at all with the case or the condition and look of the flute. The real test though is the flute itself and how it plays. Since it is new I will not be able to talk about durability, but if it made it here via UPS and that treatment, I believe it must at least be pretty tough.

I compared this flute to my best flute, my Pearl PF-775 flute, which cost near 3000.00 in 1995 when I bought it, and today you can find them in good condition for around 1800.00 or so. A 169.00 flute VS an 1800.00 flute. Both are identical in every way except one is solid silver head to foot the other plated silver over cupernickel. Which is better?

They both are B-foot and have the gizmo key, the Glory has the offset G and the Pearl has the inline G. The inline G to an offset G is the only other difference. I can tell you all, it is very close, and very hard to tell which is better. I know you don’t want to believe that, so, let’s just listen shall we? Play the video I uploaded where I compare them side by side playing the same song. You will be amazed at how nice the Glory sounds! In the picture of both flutes the Glory is the one on the left.

Update:
4 years later…Yeah, still plays great and I still can’t compare. The silver started to tarnish, but that does not affect the sound and I have been able to polish it back up just like my other flutes that are 100% solid silver. Any loss of silver is not visible either. Still sounds amazing! No adjustments needed, nothing and the pads though a little more worn are still doing their job. I am so glad I bought this flute. 🙂

It’s an ok beginner flute. Some tuning issues between notes but for the price. good

Have not yet begun to play it but it is beautiful and great carry case….love the look. Nice.

El vendedor respondió mis preguntas antes de realizar la compra, comprometiéndose a resolver cualquier posible inconformidad, lo cual agradecí. La Flauta llegó en tiempo estimado, bien empacada, bien protegida, muy limpia, nueva, buena funcionalidad, muy satisfecho con la compra, muchas gracias.

This review refers to the silver plated 165 Dols Glory flute I bought because of its B foot so as to better play violin pieces where the low B pops up quite often. Although it remains to be seen how the flute does in a few months, I am very surprised about the quality of this low-price instrument. So far I used a Pearl Flute bought about 45 years ago with a silver head joint and a C Foot. I also briefly used a very expensive silver-gold alloy handmade Natsuki with a C Foot bought about 25 years ago. Although it sounds ,unbelievable, I do better on the cheap Glory “marching band” flute playing classical pieces. I still have problems with the low B though, because I am simply not yet used to it . I also have problems with the last two highest notes (B and C) .The B and C at the very top as well the lowest B, hardly ever occur. I never met them in the 4 or 5 years of my playing primarily Bach and a little music of the classical era. For this reason I hardly practiced these notes. It is surely not a problem of the flute but me. In violin music to which I now turn they do occur occasionally and I am confident the Glory will do justice to them with sufficient practice.. The flute does extremely well on the most frequently used tonal range and one may play it softly very easily. After a brief warm up, I could play the Glory so softly that next-door neighbours would not notice me at all . Well known problem tones of the flute such as C Sharp, 2nd octave sound pretty good on it. I guess for reasons of physics a perfect flute does not exist. Some tones naturally come beautifully and some are tough to produce. Given that, it seems a good idea if flute makers to compromise on notes that hardly occur. As to price I am not so keen on expensive handmade flutes because I want to play without worrying constantly about theft. Given todays technology and mass production, I tend to trust a custom made flute more than a handmade model, (unless I had very specific needs, that may not be mass produced) . ‘As to metall, yes you do hear the difference. Gold silver, coupro -nickel, wood sound different. But it does not mean that you get a poorer sound on a cheaper metal, the sound is not worse but simply different. Most flutes whether, gold, silver , wood or coupro nickel sound gorgeous if the player does justice to them. The cheap models seem to sound more tender, light and fragile .It seems hard to produce a real broad, volumous sound on them which I do not mind since I wanted a flute and not a trumpet. Also, if you are a hobby player like me, a tender sound is better since you do not want to be noticed by neighbours. ‘All in all I am so far very happy with my new flute. It looks pretty solid. If it lasts one year it was worth it. Padding an expensive flute after one year costs more than a new cheap flute. ‘This flute seems an excellent option (at least for a hobby player that does not play in a symphony). I tried to put the silver head joint of my Pearl onto the Glory flute that one did not work