Well it arrived next day, brilliant service by Hobgoblin mail order (in fact I'd have been just as impressed if I'd paid the extra money for next-day delivery, but I didn't and it got here next day anyway).

Not had much time to play with it yet, but first impressions are good. Nicely made, certainly feels much sturdier than the bamboo Xaphoons which is a factor had always put me off the bamboo ones a bit.

The lower octave fingering is pretty familiar if you're coming from a whistle / flute background, but for the D - F# of the second octave it all goes a bit weird fingering-wide, no doubt there's complex vibrating-tube-harmonics stuff going on, combined with a bit of best guesswork and some reliance on breath pressure and reed control.

The breath pressure needed is much more than a flute but much less than a bombarde or rauschpfeife; anyone who has only ever played light-touch tin whistles before will certainly be in for a bit of a shock puff-wise.

As a pretty much complete novice to clarinet/saxophone - type single reed instruments I'm making some very satisfying honking noises, some in tune and others not, and when the force is with me have managed a passable attempt in D at that old one-octave standby Speed The Plough.

The dog is not yet howling at me in protest, which is always a plus when a new reed instrument comes into the house, and for that matter neither is the rest of the family, which is even better.

Excellent fun, but time will tell whether it's an interesting try-out or something I start carrying around and playing regularly ...