Richard is right, fundamentally I’m not considering myself worthy of a expensive instrument; I’m just a self-teaching old student fond with baroque musics. Here in Milan (Italy) is not very easy to find a good recorder teacher, since this instrument is wrongly judged nothing more than a shrill toy while, as we know, in case a player knows how to correctly breath and toungue, it is marvellous.
Sticking to the matter of the instrument, I think I could give a try to the Ecodear since its not so expansive. (in fact, I’m beating around the bush for I don’t want finish to have a drawer full of poor instruments while eventually spending the same as for a single good instrument, as the Bernolin)
I was asking about the Mollenhauer prima bacause I have a Moeck soprano half plastic and half wood and it sounds much better that the whole plastic yamaha 300 soprano, but maybe the Ecodear is even better.
Still many thanks for all the precious advice you’re giving me,
Matteo
Even if you don’t consider yourself worthy of an expensive recorder, keep in mind that an expensive recorder is still less expensive than almost any other musical instrument.
I am probably not better than you as a recorder player, but after having played a Yamaha 300 for months I buyed a Bernolin and believe me I can definitely tell the difference. In my opinion, the Bernolin is the best baroque recorder you can buy for under 1000€, because it sounds as good as a wooden hand made instrument and it is as durable as a plastic one, without the need of oiling and other care. It is an instrument that suits the needs of both amateurs and professionals.
Regarding the industrial wooden models, I think that besides the “look and feel” of wood the quality improvement over a good plastic one is definitely smaller than the difference in price. At least, you should try before buy, because the quality may be inconsistent between different pieces of the same model.
The only wooden model I am actually considering to buy is the above metioned Mollenhauer Dream Editon (soprano), because it plays differently than the usual baroque models and it is a modern design that is probabily better suited for machine production.