FINTONA Irish D Flute

I have been after an Irish flute for a while, I can play the concert flute and I have always wanted to produce that lovely wooden tone without spending the thousands of pounds for a proper wooden flute. I also play the whistles and I was drawn to a £200 polymer flute produced by a well-known whistle maker but I was very disappointed with the finish and so it was returned. I then saw this Glenluce for £79, could not understand why it was so dramatically reduced, but I thought it was worth a punt.; I noticed that after my purchase it went back up to £296. It arrived from Germany (?) and looked OK. It has an ebonite top joint and a black wood main body, it also has a brass tuner slide. It was initially difficult to play but I put that down to my inability, but then noticed a crack in the main wooden part of the flute, the crack extended into the large tenon joint and it was leaking. I sent it back and considered a refund but thought I'd give it another chance. The replacement arrived quickly and it seems totally different, it is well presented in a wooden case, not a cloth wrap like the first one. It appears to be crack free and it plays really well. If it stays crack free then it is well worth the £79, if it doesn't then it's going back. There is no way that it is worth the £296 original price tag, I appreciate it was made in Pakistan, but that's not always a bad thing. My rating would have been one star before the replacement but I think the replacement deserves three. It sounds better every time I play it.