Pau Puig, Traditional musician.
I'm Pau puig, traditional musician. I Play several wind instruments, and I'm friend and musical companion with Ricard in some musical adventures. I've lived the process of building this pvc flutes, and I can guarantee that they are the result of a passionate and rigorous work. I've had the chance to try the flutes in different moments of the process, until Ricard found a satisfactory result, and of course, I fell in love with one of his first flutes, and I acquired it.
Really they are very affordable instruments, with more than satisfactory performance, beautiful and powerful sound, that makes you forget that you are playing a plastic instrument, and well in tune. I'm not in the Irish music business, but I use the flute for play traditional music from here and around, and I'm very satisfied with Ricard's flute.
I encourage you to give them a try.
Now I'm waiting patiently for flutes in other tonalities, in order to extend the family
Victor Bauzá. Musician, arranger and producer.
The Vallina Flute is an extraordinary option to complete the timbral range of my flute colection. It is easy to play and has a magnificent versatility—it allows me to achieve colours that I can't reach with other flutes.
Guillermo del Val, Classical and Folk musician
Conservatory Professor of Flute (Sist. Böhm)
Artisan at DVG Whistles
Construction: Very fine finish, holes perfectly suited for small hands, and with a similar feel with high end wooden flutes. It has a sober and clean look, with very nice and careful details. The joint between the two bottom halves is a little hard, but with care is easy to assemble.
Behavior: The sound production is easy, the finish of the embouchure hole is perfect, and the height of riser is wide, similar to a Böhm flute, which allows to obtain a good volume in the lowest notes. Closing well the holes, a powerful low D is obtained without difficulty (Tested with my elemental grade students at the conservatory).
Some notes may sound "false" for ears used to Böhm tempered flutes, specially E and B, but they are in consonance with the Irish flute "near just tempered" intonation system.
Due to his high inner diameter, the flute has best timbrical possibilities, but the air expenditure is somewhat higher, and the intonation suffers slightly.
Intonation: In comparison with other Irish flutes, the intonation is good. The Fajardo wedge helps to balance the intonation between octaves. Nevertheless, the upper octave is a little low respect the lower one, and requires more embouchure work.
Weak Points: Only two, and of a relative importance. The high C natural is low in intonation with the fingering 0XX XX0, and the color of the note is somewhat rough, and the low G# is very high, almost impracticable. As said, his importance is relative, as this notes rarely appears in Irish or Scottish repertoire, which are the ones the flute is intended for.