I bought this for my 4 year old son who has been playing up to now on a plastic recorder. Since he got stuck in to learning it properly I decided to upgrade him to a wooden (well in this case half wooden) Recorder.
This is a really beautiful Recorder with a plastic head (much better to clean) with the rest of the instrument being wood.
On playing the Instrument the first Thing my son noticed was how big the holes were and were much easier for him to find (and cover), in comparison with his other recorder, it is true that the holes are substantially bigger.
The problem note for my son was 'G' through either not covering the thumb hole or not getting all fingers coverign the top three holes, resulting in the usual 'small-bird-being-strangled' sound which I have to say has significanly improved on this Instrument. Altogether the sound is very 'sweet' and woody sounding and not harsh and shrill like you get from many of the plastic recorders.
For the 'little people', they have to be reminded that these instruments require quite thorough cleaning, the cleaning rod is OK, but better to go for a bushy pipe-cleaner and this like other wooden wind instruments does not want to be left damp with spit floating around inside.
The case for the recorder is also very nice with a little pot of lubricant to ease getting the mouthpiece on and off as the cork seal dries faily quickly.
All-in-all my son is very happy with the recorder and I am very happy with the increase in playability over his previous. Therefore I see this as highly recommended.
