A large share of the recorders sold with a wood grain down the body are molded plastic with a coating on them. Yamaha says so themselves: the YRA-312B is, in their words, “identical body and design as the YRA-302B, but with an added coating to give the appearance of Rosewood”. Aulos labels some of theirs “Woodgrain Finish”, and every recorder in their catalogue is ABS resin. Neither is hiding anything — the information is simply in the specification rather than in the photograph, and the photograph is what sells.
Real wooden recorders exist at every price from about twenty-five dollars to about four hundred, and the cheap end is better than its reputation, because the softer, cheaper woods are the ones that suit a first wooden instrument.
Eastar ERS-31BM — maple soprano, Baroque fingering, around $27
Solid North American maple, three-piece so the foot joint rotates to suit your hand, and the cheapest way to find out whether you actually enjoy playing wood. Maple is one of the woods that never needs oiling, which removes the main reason people give up on a wooden recorder.
Telling wood from a coating
The tell is in the model number, and both big makers publish it. Yamaha’s current wooden recorders are the 60, 80, 800 and 900 series and are described on their own specification pages as handcrafted; everything in the 300 series is ABS resin, whatever color it has been finished in. The rosewood and ebony versions carry the same bore, the same windway and the same tuning as the plain brown model beside them, at roughly fifteen dollars more.
| Model | Reads as | Actually |
|---|---|---|
| Yamaha YRS-312B / YRA-312B | Rosewood | ABS resin, simulated rosewood finish |
| Yamaha YRS-314B / YRA-314B | Ebony | ABS resin, simulated ebony finish |
| Yamaha YRS-322B / YRA-322B | Rosewood | ABS resin, simulated rosewood finish |
| Aulos — the entire range | Wood, on the woodgrain-finish models | ABS resin, every model Aulos builds |
| Yamaha YRS-61 / 62 / 64 / 82 / 83 | Wood | Wood — handcrafted soprano |
| Yamaha YRA-61 / 64 / 801–811 / 901 | Wood | Wood — handcrafted alto |
| Hohner 95xx pearwood | Wood | Wood — pear |
| Eastar ERS-31BM / ERS-31GM | Wood | Wood — maple |
If the model number is not to hand, the wood itself is: on a real wooden recorder the grain runs continuously across the joints and around the back, and the finger holes are cut through visible end grain. A printed finish repeats, and it stops dead at the tenon.
The cheap woods are the right woods to start on
Wooden recorders are not priced by how good they sound. They are priced by how hard the wood is to work and how long the maker spends voicing them, and hardness is also what decides the tone. Moeck grade the woods they use from 1 to 5 and set out the rule plainly: softer woods, grades 1 and 2, give a warm, fundamental tone that blends in an ensemble, while harder woods such as palisander and grenadilla, grades 4 and 5, give a bright, resonant tone suited to playing alone. Medium woods sit in the middle and do both.
Maple and pear are at the soft end. That makes them the wrong choice for a soloist and the right choice for almost everyone else — warm, forgiving, easy to blend with a second player or a piano. It also makes them cheap, which is a coincidence rather than a compromise.
The second thing the wood decides is maintenance, and here the gap is larger than the price gap. Moeck’s own guidance is that boxwood, grenadilla, olive, palisander, plum and rosewood must be oiled regularly, while their maple and pear instruments are impregnated with paraffin at the factory and never need oiling at all. So the twenty-seven dollar maple recorder needs swabbing out and nothing else, and the four hundred dollar rosewood one needs a bottle of oil and a routine.
The picks
Eastar ERS-31BM Maple Soprano Recorder
- Solid North American maple
- Baroque fingering
- Soprano, key of C
- Three-piece
- No oiling required
- ~$27
Maple, three joints, and a price that makes the decision reversible. The three-piece build matters more than it sounds: the foot joint rotates, so the lowest hole can be moved to wherever the little finger naturally falls, which is the difference between a comfortable instrument and one that gets put down after a fortnight.
The tone is what soft wood gives you — rounder and less piercing than a cheap plastic soprano, without the projection a hard-wood instrument has. It responds more slowly than a Yamaha ABS and wants a steadier column of air, which is a fair description of every wooden recorder and part of the reason wood is a second instrument rather than a first.
Baroque and German fingering are sold as two options of the same instrument, one dollar apart, and the fingering is not printed in large type on either. The B in ERS-31BM is Baroque, which is the system every English-language method book assumes.
- Genuinely solid maple at a price most people will risk
- Rotating foot joint fits the hand
- Never needs oiling
- Voiced to a price — the tuning is good rather than exact
- One letter from the German-fingered version
- Still needs playing in and drying like any wooden instrument
Eastar ERS-31GM Maple Soprano Recorder
- Solid North American maple
- German fingering
- Soprano, key of C
- Three-piece
- ~$28
Identical body, identical wood, one dollar more, and the fourth and fifth finger holes swapped in size. German fingering makes the note F easy and makes F sharp — and everything with a sharp in it — worse. It is worth buying only if a teacher has asked for it or a class is already using it.
- Matches a German-fingered class set
- Low F is simpler for a small hand
- Sharps play out of tune above the basic scale
- Most published repertoire assumes Baroque
Hohner 9550 Pearwood Soprano Recorder
- Seasoned pear, dark stained
- Baroque fingering
- Soprano, key of C
- Two-piece
- No oiling required
- ~$40
Pear is the wood European makers have used for school and student instruments for a century, and it sits a step up from maple on the hardness scale — a little more definition at the top, still soft enough to blend. Hohner season and stain theirs, which is where the near-black color comes from.
Two-piece construction is the trade. There is one fewer joint to leak or to work loose, which is why it has lasted as a design, but the foot is fixed, so the lowest hole is where the maker put it. On a soprano that rarely matters; on an alto it would.
The mouthpiece is shaped rather than left square, and it is noticeably more comfortable over an hour than the molded plastic beaks. Thirteen dollars over the maple buys a better wood, a shaped beak and a hundred years of the same pattern.
- Pear, seasoned and stained rather than raw
- Shaped mouthpiece that suits a long session
- No oiling routine to keep up
- Fixed foot joint, so no adjusting for hand size
- Ships in a clear plastic sleeve rather than a case
- Hohner’s pearwood sopranos run under several near-identical numbers
Yamaha YRS-64 Handcrafted Rosewood Soprano Recorder
- Rosewood, handcrafted
- Baroque fingering
- Soprano, key of C
- Three-piece, arched windway
- Cotton case, cork grease, cleaning rod
- ~$400
This is where the money goes and what it buys. Rosewood is a hard, dense wood — grade 4 or 5 on Moeck’s scale — so the tone is bright, clearly defined and carries, which is what a solo or chamber part needs and what a maple recorder cannot do. Yamaha describes it as rich and vigorous with abundant overtones, and put it in the same handcrafted line they sell to professionals.
The arched windway is the other half. Yamaha is direct about what it costs and what it buys: it puts a slight resistance in the way of the air, which a beginner reads as hard work and a player with breath control reads as something to shape a phrase with. Combined with a hard wood it is an instrument that rewards technique and exposes its absence.
It is also the one on this page that needs looking after. Rosewood is on the oiling list, it dislikes radiators and cold cars, and it will crack if it is put away wet. Fifteen times the price of the maple soprano buys perhaps twice the instrument, which is the usual arithmetic once a craft process is involved.
- Projection and tonal definition nothing cheaper reaches
- Handcrafted and voiced rather than turned to a price
- Comes with the case, rod and cork grease it needs
- Needs oiling, drying and a stable temperature
- The arched windway is unforgiving of a wobbly airstream
- Fifteen times the price of a perfectly good wooden recorder
Yamaha YRA-302B Alto Recorder
- ABS resin
- Baroque fingering
- Alto, key of F
- Rottenburgh bore, arched windway
- ~$30
Yamaha’s own claim for the 300 series is that it is “fully competitive with more expensive wooden models”, and on the evidence of what it costs against what a comparable wooden alto costs, they are not overstating it by much. The bore is cut to the eighteenth-century Rottenburgh pattern and the windway is arched, so it is the tone and the response of a wooden recorder in a body that does not crack, does not need oiling, tolerates a school bag and can be washed.
The rosewood-finish version of this instrument, the YRA-312B, is the same body with a coating on it for about fifteen dollars more. If the look is what you are after, it is a fair way to get it and a good recorder underneath. It is just not wood, and the finish is the only part of the instrument that wears.
- Rottenburgh bore and arched windway at plastic money
- Nothing to oil, dry, season or crack
- Holds its tuning through any humidity
- Does not have the warmth of a good wooden alto and never will
- Alto fingering is a genuine relearn from the soprano
The first six weeks decide how long it lasts
New wood absorbs moisture fast, particularly in the windway and around the labium, and if it takes on too much it swells and warps. That is why a wooden recorder has to be played in, and why one that has been played hard on its first evening is often never quite right afterward. Moeck publish the schedule they recommend, and it is short enough to memorize.
| Week | Maximum playing per day |
|---|---|
| 1 | About 5 minutes |
| 2 | About 10 minutes |
| 3 | About 15 minutes |
| Each week after | Add another 5 minutes |
| About week 6 | Break-in complete |
Two conditions go with the table. If the instrument turns hoarse before the time is up, stop for the day — hoarseness is water in the windway, and it is the instrument telling you it has had enough. And it has to dry completely before it is played again, which in practice means one session a day rather than three short ones.
Start in the low register with long held notes and slow runs, and widen the range and the tempo week by week rather than all at once, because the wood has to get used to varying air pressure as well as to moisture. A child can do all of this perfectly well without supervision.
Looking after it after that
Warm the instrument in your hands or under a jumper before playing. A cold recorder condenses your breath immediately and goes hoarse within a minute; a warm one does not. Rinse your mouth first as well, because anything that gets into the windway stays there and dulls the sound.
Afterward, thread a soft lint-free cotton cloth through the cleaning rod, work it into a tuft that fills the bore and wipe the inside dry with a twisting motion. Then leave the recorder out in room air, in the shade, until it is completely dry. Putting a damp instrument back in its case is the single most common way a wooden recorder ends up mouldy or split.
Never touch the labium — the sharp edge in the window — or put anything into the windway. The labium is the part that makes the note and it is thin enough to damage with a fingernail, often past repair. And keep the instrument away from radiators, direct sun and drafts, because it is sudden changes of temperature rather than temperature itself that crack wood.
Oiling applies only to the hard woods. If the bore looks dull, pale and dry rather than faintly glossy, it wants oil; a thin almond-based bore oil brushed everywhere except the block and the windway is all that is required, a few times a year. Do not use linseed oil — it leaves a sticky residue that is difficult to remove, and rags soaked in it can ignite on their own.
Checking the fingering before you buy
Wooden recorders are sold in Baroque and German fingering just as plastic ones are, and the model codes are just as easy to misread. Baroque, sometimes called English, is what the repertoire and the method books assume. German is a 1920s simplification that makes the note F easy at the cost of every sharp above it.
There is a way to settle it from a photograph, which Moeck set out and which works on any recorder ever made: count down to the fourth and fifth finger holes and compare their sizes. If the fourth is the larger of the two, it is German. If the fifth is larger, it is Baroque. That test is worth more than the model number, because it cannot be mistyped.
The codes follow the same conventions as the plastic instruments — Eastar puts B or G in the middle of the model number, Yamaha uses an even number with a B for Baroque. There is more on this in our guide to plastic recorders and in the Aulos and Yamaha comparison.
FAQs
Is a wooden recorder better than a plastic one?
Not below about a hundred dollars. A well-made plastic recorder holds its tuning better than a cheaply turned wooden one, survives being dropped, and can be washed. Above that a good wooden instrument has a warmth and a range of color that molded resin does not reach. Wood is a considered second purchase, not a first one.
Which wood should I choose?
Maple or pear if you play with other people or are buying your first wooden recorder — soft woods give a warm tone that blends, and they need no oiling. Rosewood, grenadilla, palisander or boxwood if you play alone or lead a part, because hard woods are brighter and project further. Those also have to be oiled.
How much does a wooden recorder cost?
A solid maple soprano starts around twenty-five dollars and a pearwood one around forty. A handcrafted instrument from a maker who voices each one individually runs from about three hundred and fifty upward, and altos and tenors cost considerably more than sopranos at every level.
Do wooden recorders crack?
They can, and the causes are known: being played too long when new, being put away wet, and sudden changes of temperature. Playing it in over six weeks, drying it properly and keeping it away from radiators deals with nearly all of it.
Can a child have a wooden recorder?
Yes, and breaking it in themselves is a good exercise. But a wooden recorder does not belong in a school bag, and if the instrument is going to spend its life being carried around and shared, plastic is the honest answer.
What does a two-piece or three-piece recorder mean?
How many joints the body has. Three-piece instruments have a separate foot, which rotates so the lowest hole can be lined up with your little finger. Two-piece instruments have one fewer joint to leak or loosen but a fixed foot. On a soprano the difference is small; on an alto or a tenor it is not.
Does a wooden recorder need a case?
It needs somewhere to live once it is dry. What it must not have is a case it goes into damp, so a bag that breathes is more useful than a sealed one, and neither is a substitute for leaving it out in room air first.
Where to go next
If wood is turning out to be the wrong answer, the plastic recorder picks cover the same ground for a tenth of the money. For the size above the soprano, see alto recorders, and for the one below the bass, tenor recorders for small hands, where the wooden instruments have ergonomic options the plastic ones do not. The rest of the family sits under woodwind instruments.