Mason Pro Flutes

[Sharona]

Has anybody every heard or had any experience with Mason Pro Flutes? I was looking at a Bass and Alto set on ebay for my daughter. I can't find any info online about Mason so I wasn't sure if they are reliable or not. I don't have alot of money to spend since she is going off to college in the fall (music major) so I'm looking for something a little cheaper. Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated.

[bruce bailey]

I think he just imports the usual stuff from China and has his name on them. The prices on these run about $700 for an alto from most sellers.

[jmathesonjr]

If your daughter is a Music Major, a Mason flute won't be good enough. If she is a flute major, they definitely won't be good enough.

Most college professors have models that their students are "encouraged" to purchase. For a flute major, these will be in the $2,000.00 plus range. For an Alto or Bass flute, this will be even higher.

Muramatsu, Haynes, Powell, Sankyo, Miasawa, and Altus are brands that were thrown about at the college I attended.

The problem with the Chinese manufactured instruments that are cheap in price is the routine maintenance. It is getting harder and harder to find repairmen who will touch these instruments. They bend easy. The mechanisms lock up or are loose. The quality of the parts is suspect. I have seen some of these Chinese instruments fall apart after six months of use. I have had to tell parents that the $700.00 instrument they purchsed four months ago is a mess and probably not repairable.

Musical instruments are not toys and are not cheap to purchase, own, or repair. If an cheap instument found on ebay was worth anything, more professionals would be playing them and there would be information on the rest of the internet about these instruments. There is a reason that manufacturers like Muramatsu, Haynes, Powell, and Yamaha have been around for so very long: these guys know how to make instruments that last and sound great.

[PhineasC]

Has anybody every heard or had any experience with Mason Pro Flutes? I was looking at a Bass and Alto set on ebay for my daughter. I can't find any info online about Mason so I wasn't sure if they are reliable or not. I don't have alot of money to spend since she is going off to college in the fall (music major) so I'm looking for something a little cheaper. Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated.

If yo do not know what you are doing, Ebay is not the best place to buy instruments of ANY kind. Just about every flute I ever gotten off Ebay needed to be worked on. A lot of these people who sell these instrumensts do not even play them.

The lowest price "Safe to buy" Alto flute is the Jupiter 500 series. You can usually find one in around $1500 to $1800 dollar range new.

These days there are a lot of decent instruments coming from China. However there is still a lot of junk coming from China also. If you do not know what you are doing, the best thing for you to do is buy an instrument that someone recommends, or one from a reputable (preferably local) dealer that will guarantee, maintain, and repair it.

Check out section 2 of this FAQ
http://www.fluteland.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=2411

There are companies out there like Woodnote(Solfege Music), Saxophone.com, Dominic Music(DC-Pro) and a few others that are putting good quality low price instruments. The usual issue is not a problem with the instruments themselves, but acceptance! Eventually, if you buy a "new named" instrument, it will need to be adjusted or worked on. If a repair person will not work on it, then it becomes a useless instrument. As jmathesonjr says, the companies that he has mentioned have just been around longer and have been more proven.

Phineas