I think I've noticed one or two recorder players around here, so I'm hoping someone can help me out with some information on an old Mollenhauer alto (treble) recorder that I've picked up second hand.

It's wooden, in three parts, baroque style with 'English' fingering and is still in its original packaging, which has what I think is the old model number on it - 5339. Unfortunately I think they have changed the numbers since this was made as it doesn't match any numbers I can find on the web.

It plays better than any other recoder I've got, at least within the limits of my rather small ability, and I'm getting rather fond of it. So I'd love to know anything anyone can tell me about it - especially how old it might be and what wood it's made of?

Thanks!

What does the wood look like? Light, dark, black, fine grain, wide grain, etc...

I wondered about how to desribe the wood whe I did the original post, and didn't because I wasn't sure how to best describe it. The colour is a light brown (it's definitely not grenadilla or rosewood or anything like that). The grain is a bit hard to describe as it's not very prominent. There seems to be quite a wide pattern to the grain, but if I look closer there appears to be finer graining within that pattern, so I'm not sure if it could be called wide or fine grained. The wood has quite a distinctive feel, which remided me of something I couldn't quite place at first - but if anyone out there is old enough to remember them then it reminds me of the old wooden rulers we used to have at school. The same slightly warm 'grippy' feel they had.

I'm not sure about the ruler thing, but what you describe sounds like probably pearwood or maple.

I agree, it does sound like one of the softer woods above.

It might also be worthwhile browsing through the German Ebay site at www.ebay.de and searching active/completed listings for "Mollenhauer Blockflöte". You'll find plenty of older Mollenhauer recorders listed with pictures, that don't show up on the UK site.