Chiff and Fipple Forums

I am going to buy a mollenhauer wood recorder, and I wonder which recorder shop I should use to buy it.

The following three are my candidates.
Can anybody tell me any good and bad experience for these shop?
- Antique Sound Workshop, Ltd. ( http://www.aswltd.com/ )
- Courtly Music Unlimited ( http://courtlymusicunlimited.com/ )
- Kelischek Workshop for Historical Instruments ( http://www.susato.com/ )

I don't know anything... about the three shops you posted... but, here's another shop to consider.

http://www.vonhuene.com/

And another:

http://www.lazarsearlymusic.com/Mollenh ... orders.htm

The vonhuene.com does not response my email, which makes me disappointed.

breathejustice wrote:The above two shops do not response my email, which makes me disappointed.

Perhaps you should take into account that

1. von Huene is a small shop and maker that caters to high priority professional players as well as the general public, and Lazar's is a single individual;

2. With the long Labor Day holiday weekend barely over, expecting a 24 hour response (if your queries were sent yesterday) is not necessarily realistic.

FWIW, I have had very good recorder dealings with both Courtly Music and Lazar's, as well as for other instruments with Kelischek.

Lazar's early music replied to me. I amended the text in the above.

I used to work at Von Huene, they are probably just catching up on email after the Holiday. On any typical business day you can call and usually get excellent and extremely knowledgeable service. They also have a rather large stock of used recorders that have been serviced. Calling them is really the way to go.

Can definitely recommend von Huene. Their used instruments are excellent too. They make their own recorders so they know how fix 'em up!

I'm not familiar with any of the shops you mention but wanted to give you some advice.

I recently bought a Moeck recorder. As I was searching for a shop to buy it, one shop bragged to me how they "tweak and fine tune" all recorders sent out. I chose a different shop but had I bought mine there and they sent it along with a bragadocious note how they tweaked it, I would IMMEDIATELY demand my money back.

First, we're talking about a high quality instrument which I will postulate is just fine out of the box. Anything a shop owner could do to it would only serve to tweak it to their individual playing style, not yours. Also, if a high quality instrument has a tone or intonation problem, the people to fix it is the manufacturer not a third party.

Can you imagine getting a brand new Mollenhauer or Moeck recorder and finding that one of the notes is off, sending it back to the manufacturer and being told that it was modified and they will no longer honor any product warranties?

Even if a shop has a top professional recorder builder and tweaker, ask them to not modify it until after you have played it for a while first.

Tater, can you tell us a bit about you background with playing and/or making recorders? Do you have some experience with both high and low end recorders? Have you had the opportunity to play many examples of any of the instruments you mention? Since you seem to be new here, and you are offering some very opinionated advice, it would be helpful to know what background you are drawing your opinions from - specifically with regards to recorders.

Tater wrote:First, we're talking about a high quality instrument which I will postulate is just fine out of the box. Anything a shop owner could do to it would only serve to tweak it to their individual playing style, not yours. Also, if a high quality instrument has a tone or intonation problem, the people to fix it is the manufacturer not a third party.

But many Mollenhauer and Moeck recorders are just run-of-the-mill production models with few, if any, at the real top level. And you're unlikely to get Mollenhauer or Moeck to 'fix' these when they thought they were OK to ship in the first place...

Can you imagine getting a brand new Mollenhauer or Moeck recorder and finding that one of the notes is off,

Yes. In fact I doubt I've ever seen a perfect one!

sending it back to the manufacturer and being told that it was modified and they will no longer honor any product warranties?

No, because I'd have tried the instrument first (they vary!) and would either already be satisfied with the shop's work or prepared to tweak it further myself. (Caveat: if I order a high-quality, handmade instrument of any type direct from its maker, I will always consult the maker first.)

Even if a shop has a top professional recorder builder and tweaker, ask them to not modify it until after you have played it for a while first.

Know what? I've got two recorders (mid-range Yamaha boxwood and handmade Herbert Paetzold blackwood) I've been playing for nearly thirty years on replacement blocks I made myself when I was studying recorder in Holland. And the Paetzold was poor till I replaced Paetzold's own block with mine (the Yamaha also has some Plasticine bore and tone hole tweaks). Can I make recorders? No, I don't have Loren's experience there and I've never tried, but I do understand some of what makes a recorder tick and think you may be viewing Moeck, Mollenhauer and their wares through rose-tinted specs here.