[Ansteorra] buying recorders (was: iso dance)

[Jeffrey Clark]

 Sir Gason,

The problem becomes that most wooden recorders you'll find floating around
on the market aren't worth the wood they're made of. There is a glut of
post-WWII recorders on the market that are just horrible, and many other
wooden instruments from that time period aren't much better. I wasn't
kidding when I said that until you are ready to spend $300+ on purchasing
your recorder from a specialist, you are better off with the 300. I have
yet to find a commercial, wooden recorder for <$150 that my plastic 300
didn't outclass. It is the sad state of things, but Yamaha has sunk a good
deal of time into perfecting the 300 and most of the cheaper wooden models
weren't made by people who knew what they were doing.

For wooden recorders for SCA use, my vote would go to the Mollenhauer
"Dream" recorders. Breukink is a genius, and the Dream recorders are
wonderful instruments -- just make sure that you warm it up before you
really start playing on it.

--AS Zorzi

On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 4:44 PM, Zach Most <clermont1348 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> At Candlemas on Feb 4th there were five people playing recorders at
> various times.  The alto is extremely versatile.  The Yamaha 300s are an
> economical choice that will weather camping conditions well.  I try to only
> play wooden instruments at SCA events, but happy music from a plastic
> instrument is better than none at all, or a boom box.  You can get a great
> buzzy (double reed) sound from a Glastonbury pipe for a low price.  They're
> quiet, but not hard to learn on if your relative pitch is decent.
>
>   Gaston
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