h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This has been a controversial topic in a lot of recorder interest groups, so I hope I am not stirring a hornet's nest here by saying this. Please remember that what I say is my opinion, coloured by other people's opinions and my own experience.

Wooden instruments _may_ sound better than plastic, if they have been crafted and voiced by a skilled craftsman. But I have a wooden instrument that was mass-produced and is actually slightly less good than my best plastic recorder.

The sound quality of a recorder depends to a large extent on the voicing of the instrument, and the smoothness of the windway. Any unevenness will affect the tone, and even prevent it from sounding at all. For that reason, some of the plastic recorders which are mass-produced are in fact very high-quality instruments, although their appearance belies the quality of their sound, and because they are mass-produced, are much less expensive than their handmade counterparts.

Not controversial at all. That's my opinion too.

My youngest daughter insisted on me buying her a wooden recorder, and I got her a second-hand East German one. It was awful! Her plastic Yamaha is far better.

My personal favourite is my Lee Collins / Zen-On, which is a plastic recorder with a cedar-wood block in the windway to soak up the moisture. It plays like a dream.