r/Recorder

I have been contemplating getting back into playing an instrument more and more recently. When I was younger, I played the recorder, the western concert flute, the tin whistle, and the drums. Unfortunately, my life went sideways about 20 years ago and I hadn't played since.

I stumbled upon Team Recorder on YouTube as I was tossing the idea around. Her videos are so lovely and enthusiastic, it made me miss playing even more. So I decided I would pick up the recorder again to see how that feels. I gave myself a budget of $50. As I was contemplating which plastic recorder to buy, it occurred to me that I should check Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. It just so happened someone was selling an all wood Adri's Dream for $50! But they were 2 hours away. I reached out to the seller, and it just so happened that he already had plans to head an hour in my direction on the same day I already had plans to head towards his direction 1 hour, so we met in the middle! (Don't worry, I did NOT leave it baking in the car under the hot summer sun as I went about my original plans for the day. It came inside with me everywhere.)

It hadn't been played in a quite a while, and had some powdery surface mold/mildew inside and outside, so I had to get that cleaned up, but I'm so happy with it. I ordered a method book to get me back up to speed, but I really wanted to give it a go now and I remembered "Au claire de la lune" from when I first learned the recorder and the flute, so I went for it, and it sounds quite lovely. My only regret with getting a wood one is I have to play it in, and I'm itching to practice longer!

It has two head joints, one with the crook and the other with direct blow. Leather and wool strap, metal keys. It's dynamic and sounds really good. Got it for 85€ on a market. How much do you think it's really worth ? When were they made ? The reference doesn't seem to exist anymore
Really happy with this instrument :)

Hello Recorder People! I'm learning the flute and this set of recorders came up for sale at a price I was happy enough with, so picked them up as all woodwind is best woodwind, right??

Curious if there's any gotchas or anything to old recorders? Also curious what the wood is? I've already had to replace a cork with some string and it seems to do the job, but i'd like to replace it with some proper cork in the future.

I've applied some of the boiled linseed oil diluted back down a bit as it was a tad thick to the very dry areas, avoiding the block, and that seems to have helped it out a bit.

The brushes had a fair bit of corrosion on some, so I washed them in bio detergent, spun the dry to to retain the shape, soaked them in IPA to get most the rust out, then did a soak in a dilute phosphoric acid to get rid of the remaining rust, and they look brand new again.

The bigger green cases had some crusty dirt on the flocking, so I cleaned that out with the laundry detergent diluted and a toothbrush, then air dried and it's now looking better than the one that looked clean...

I'm impressed the owner kept the old oil and condensation? stuff along with the cork grease all these years.

I'm estimating them to be from pre 1983 as it came with a pack of rizla papers dated to 1983. Although the AI's tell me these are from the 70's...

Also got some old book which i'll be using, this isn't my main instrument as I have a Sankyo CF201 as my main flute, but I want to try my hand at a bit of recorder'ing in the future to expand the range, and fun!

I got this new flute. I can't find any makers mark on it. Is there any way to find out the maker? It's probably quite an old instrument.

And how would I best go about cleaning the instrument? The bore seems like it has some build up (mould?).

Here are some of the more interesting instruments in my collection. These were made by Afflato in Italy who make 3D printed, hand finished instruments including some very fine recorders (and flageolets).

From left to right they are:
Voice flute after Bressan, scaled to A415 but with the original bore profile. This results in a very rich and beefy low register at the expense of not being able to play 2 full octaves with standard fingerings. Perfectly acceptable for historical voice flute repertoire which is all I wanted to tackle with it given I also play traverso.

Alto recorder after Bressan, also scaled to A415 but developed from a CT scan of the original instrument rather than from manual measurements like the voice flute. I wanted it as a workhorse 415 alto (like what most pros would get a Bernolin for) but historical fingerings and single holes were a non-negotiable for me.

Flageolet in G at 415 after an anonymous (probably French) original. Also developed from a CT scan. Perfect for exploring all the English repertoire for this size of flageolet including quite a bit of Händel!

They're all made from sintered nylon (i.e. much higher quality than at home printers can produce) and hand finished and voiced. The blocks of the alto and the flageolet have cedar inserts. They all play equally as well as their fully handmade wooden counterparts but it's great to have these on hand.

Now with all that said, would I recommend these instruments? Yes, but with a BIG caveat. I would say that unless you want something which doesn't exist anywhere else in the market (voice flutes with the original bore profile, historical fingerings, weird pitches or sizes, etc.), I would go for something else. There are so many makers producing fantastic instruments of all the popular sizes and designs at all price points and Afflato fills a niche which traditional production methods cannot fill affordably due to the lack of a large scale customer base.

My very first wooden tenor; an amazingly preserved, beloved FEHR Model 3 in maple, purchased today 😍

More than excited...

Deleted the other post because it's the same song but fully this time. I ff-ed up some notes at the end on the whistle hahah xd

For context: I can't read sheet music, but I play by ear. Although I know where the notes on the recorder are, i much rather play by ear. The recorder is a Moeck Rottenburgh alto in Maple :)

This recorder has 6 keys. Not sure what effect they have on the sound mind...

I just started playing alto recorder and am just trying to play all the notes in series to get used to the fingerings (for reference, I am a flute player). I seem to be unable to hit this F as easily as I hit the E (as in, it sounds a lot lower. is this the point where I should blow harder to play harmonics? Does my question even make any sense?

Completely smitten with it. The tone is so clear and full, and it really sings so easily. The previous owner barely played it after buying it 50 years ago, and took excellent care of it.