MIMF

Hi.

I'm trying to find a new recorder for myself, but after a lot of searching, talking to people that KNOW recorders and all that, I'm still very frustrated. First thing is, they're all made from either natural wood or ABS plastic. Natural wood is unstable (as you probably know). Some of the better makers use seasoned (dried carefully) wood, but I just don't buy the load that it's free of problems. We all know how ABS plastic sounds.

Also, the most recorder makers are copying old designs from 100s of years ago, which all have inherent problems with intonation, voicing, etc.

So I'd like to propose something. Can anyone here copy a plastic instrument I have in ebonite, acrylized wood or some other good material? It is a good modern design, the only problem I have with it is that it is plastic!

Edit: I will of course pay for this.

Er, I hate to point this out, but ebonite is just another name for plastic. Of a sort. Acrylised wood does indeed have wood somewhere there, but to all practical purposes the instrument is pure plastic. What other good material do you have in mind?

Ebonite is rubber, from the rubber tree, reacted with sulphur.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonite

Anyway, you're the bone flute guy? I guess bone would work, but you'd need a pretty big bone: my recorder is 26" long and a little over 2" diameter at the widest. It breaks apart into 3 pieces so I guess you could use multiple bones. It also has two keys on it. Its an Aulos 511B tenor.

I stopped using bone for woodwind. It tends to crack. Less readily than wood, but the results are far worse.
On the other hand, if you can find three pieces of straight antler of the right sizes, that would work very well.

Ebonite or hard rubber is not that stable; after a couple of decades it can start to turn to goo, or crack up, or both. Impregnated wood, like Pakawood, also tend to have stresses, and since they are full of gluejoints, they've been also known to crack up.

Yamaha now is producing a recorder from plant derived plastic. I hate working in plastic. Get one printed.
Also though I agree there are some nice contemporary instrument designs. Very few recorders can stand up to the designs of "100's of years ago" . I would suggest the bulk of modern recorders are bunk as a real instrument.

Coolsma in the Netherlands makes an Ivorine recorder. All plastic but machined from solid bars rather than molded. Pricey but solid reputation.