Chiff and Fipple Forums

There are several antique kavals on ebay such as this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270952003678? ... 7608wt_922

Do they look like real instruments or are they just oldtourist junk?
They certainly look old, but have they been played?

I think they are on there regularly there a a few now at least.

To me, they do look like they have been real instruments in their time, but that was long ago...
While it might be possible to get them back into playing condition, the cost of this repair would easily buy you a top-class kaval from a reputable maker.
Also, from the lengths given, none of them seems to be in the nowadays standard key of D, I guess they would be somewhere around C-B.

thanks Michael,
I love antiques and can do a bit of flute repair on conical wooden flutes, one I am looking at is not too bad looking, sharper blowedge, only a small crack. Also not really concerned about pitch just now.
who would you recommend for a cheap starter kaval?
while I realize good ones can be had for not all that much compared to other instruments i really need somethung not too pricey?
How hard is the jump from simple system to Kaval (all relative I suppose)?

This one looks best to me: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANTIQUE-FOLK- ... 398wt_1168
The most important part is of course the edge, you need at least 1 cm of undamaged edge to produce a decent sound.
Veselin Hasabaliev is a top class maker, I think his instruments range from about 180 Euros; also I've heard only the best about Radoslav Paskalev - he is in the US. Stay away from anything which is too cheap.
If you want to play kaval, you need a good instrument, or you will never make it.
Concerning your question about the jump from simple system to kaval - I couldn't tell, really, because I never played flute -however, the kaval is totally different from any side-blown flute. The fingering is different in that each fingerhole except for the lowest, raises the tone by a semitone, therefore giving a chromatic scale. The "normal" playing register is in fact the second octave, which means that by further overblowing you will obtain the fifth, so you get a complete scale. An accomplished player can get up to four octaves out of the kaval. After all, it is all about the embouchure - I got used to the fingering very quickly, but I'm still struggling with the embouchure, after ten years. Another peculiarity is that mostly each tone is played with a typical vibrato which, different from any "Western" vibrato, goes upwards, by rocking the finger on the tone hole, without actually opening it.
The kaval is a most beautiful instrument, but it needs to be taken serious, it's not really easy.

Save up your money and get a kaval from Radoslav Paskalev or Hector Bezanis. Kaval is a very tough instrument and if you don't start out with something of good quality it could be extremely frustrating to learn.

MichaelLoos wrote:Veselin Hasabaliev is a top class maker, I think his instruments range from about 180 Euros; also I've heard only the best about Radoslav Paskalev - he is in the US. Stay away from anything which is too cheap.
The kaval is a most beautiful instrument, but it needs to be taken serious, it's not really easy.

I ordered one from Viktor Terziyski http://www.flutemaster.net/#kaval
It is actually a duduk-kaval: this instrument has a body of the kaval, but the part you blow into is a whistle. Can't wait for it to come, and wondering does anybody know about it? Is the sound similar to kaval?

[Thread revival. - Mod]

Back from the dead thread:

Zabava77 wrote:
I ordered one from Viktor Terziyski http://www.flutemaster.net/#kaval
It is actually a duduk-kaval: this instrument has a body of the kaval, but the part you blow into is a whistle. Can't wait for it to come, and wondering does anybody know about it? Is the sound similar to kaval?

Any report on this maker and the Kaval/Duduk?