I just have to tell you guys…I just had an amazing customer service experience. David Green, owner of Antique Sound Workshop in Plymouth, MA, was tirelessly helpful over the phone. I called about (please don’t kill me) recorders. I want a recorder that sounds like a whistle. I mean, I like the fact that a recorder is chromatic. I have been playing a plastic one today and the fingering is doable, I mean it’s not THAT different from a whistle. This guy, David, listened to me go on and on about what I like in a whistle, and he told me two possibilities of recorders…he played them over the phone for me over and over, and helped me choose. He’s sending me one that he thinks will be the right one for me…he’s going to voice it to the specifications I mentioned to him, and if I don’t like it, I can return it. He talked to me for about an hour, and he never got fed up with my indecision or endless questions. This guy is a gem. (He has a few whistles and flutes, too.)
I’ve bought a recorder from him as well (don’t worry, I never use it and had a similar experience. He voices all the recorders by hand – he’d fit right in as a “tweaker”.
So what didja buy and why?!? Inquiring minds want to know!!
I’ve actually been looking at recorders lately (over the Internet) and am at a total loss as to what to start with. The only thing they sell in the stores around me are in the $4 to $12 range of badly sounding, cheap plastic instruments.
I hear the Yamaha 3xx in C" are good ones to start with…but there are only about 40 gazillion different models out there (unlike whistles ).
I don’t know if you could. It was more a reference to another thread where people were talking about drilling holes in whistles to turn them into recorders.
j
Well, I for one am in the midst of yet another required third-grade recorder unit. Our children are being indoctrinated early in the occultic arts of recorderism. Recorders are part of our world. Accept it before it destroys you.
Tom
p.s. Looking on the bright side, at least I’m not required to teach them the banjo…hee hee
On 2001-11-16 07:49, brownja wrote:
well, they can always tape over some of the holes and turn it into a whistle. >
j
That’s just a joke isn’t it? Ya couldn’t really do do that, couldja? Couldja??
Actually,you could but you would also need to drill a fole for F# and shorten the barrel to get a D bell note.Other recorder players may inflict bodily harm upon you and call you names for doing this and six string banjo players wont here the difference, so take care.Peace,Mike > > )
My favorite soprano recorders are
Moecks made out of maple. They
cost under 100, generally–some
good ones around 50. Maple seems
to work really well and they are
well made.
I think that recorder players may be putting subliminal messages in their posts - not so long ago everyone was ‘bashing’(mostly in jest of course) recorders, now they are out there buying, playing and comparing recorders, just like whistles…this is getting scarey!!
There is no conspiracy! (You know you really want to play recorder.) Subliminal messages? (Recorders sound really sweet.) Whistle purists, unite! (And recorders are so much more versatile, too.) Only problem is, with recorders, you can’t justify buying lots of them just so you can play in every key. I have a fairly nice old Moeck soprano (about 30 years old) that is sweet sounding, as well as Yahama series 300 sopranino and alto and an old pearwood Hohner bass. (The (plastic) Yamahas are all right, not wonderful, but fine to learn on and even play in public.) Have recently (last several years) come to appreciate the whistle. Recorder fingerings are a bit more complex, but with practice, quite possible. I do appreciate the (usually) jesting rivalry / reverse snobbery with which the recorder is regarded here.
Recorders sound very much the same whether plastic or wooden, however, the wooden ones have a little bit more individual character due to the fact that wood is less ‘even’ than plastic and also that wooden recorders need to be hand finished and voiced.
Having said that, most recorder players agree that a well-made plastic recorder is tons better than a cheap wood one.
In my experience, the best-selling (with good reason) plastics tend to be Yamaha, Zen-On and one other brand I can’t remember now. The best selling ‘entry-level’ wooden recorders tend to be Moeck. Take the latter as a rough guide as there are now many up-and-coming makers who can do a beautiful wood recorder at a price just a little above the Moecks.
The Recorder home page by Nick L of Australia should give lots of helpful advice.
Jessie
).
> )