I looking to start playing tenor recorder and am looking to buy one at the cheaper end of the scale. I wonder if anyone has any advice on which one to buy.

I understand that they can be quite different with different stretches to the notes.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Where do you hope to play it? A wooden recorder is lovely, but if you want to play for more than a couple of hours at a time you will want a plastic instrument or a second wood one for backup as the wood windways get waterlogged with prolonged practice. If you want to join a group then it might be useful to find out what they play so yours will fit in - one of my trebles just doesn't fit in with the SRP group. There are so many different designs and tone colours it's hard to say as a general thing, the only general thing I'd say is do you need a bottom C sharp key? Tenors do still often have a single key at the bottom. Oh, and straight tenor or knick tenor? I have giant hands and long arms so I've never seen the appeal of a knick, but most in my SRP play a knick tenor. Find a tenor you like and if the reach is too large for you then you get a key fitted rather than get a compromise instrument because the reach is more comfortable.

I have one of the cheaper Mollenhauer wooden tenors (straight), with C key and it suits me fine. I do have long fingers and I don't play for more than a couple of hours (usually a lot less...). As RoseRodent says, what you choose does depend on the use you'll give the recorder.

As I've said before: there really is no substitute for trying a few models out, I'm afraid. The tenor is the hardest of the recorders to stretch, on average, but different players have different issues. The single most tiring reach is not the right pinkie finger for most, but the left ring finger, but lateral flexibility of fingers makes at least as much difference as finger length, and you can have relatively large but inflexible hands, and that will give as much difficulty as smaller fingers in the more flexible hand. Weight is the other consideration, hence the thoughts around a knick instrument - but the flip side of those is the need for a thumbrest to stop the thing sliding to the floor - a straight one, held out correctly, won't always need that: I find thumbrests annoying in the extreme because they never quite seem to be in the right place for me .

Cheap? Plastic it is, then - and others will be able to advise better on good makes. It's also lighter to hold, which can be an advantage, and though you get just as many condensation problems, at least it isn't damaging to the instrument, only annoying. I would though point out that I have played my wooden instruments intensively for a week's course and not had problems with them: properly looked after, a good wooden instrument will cope fine . One thing I would suggest is not making the tenor the only instrument you play - it's relatively limited in repertoire.

The Yamaha plastic recorder sounds very nice. If money is an issue, I'd go for it rather than buying a cheap wooden instrument. But the main point is: always, always try a tenor recorder before you buy it. It has to be comfortable to hold and play it.

Thanks for all advice. I think I will try out a few first. My hands are quite small.

I've been playing treble with the SRP for a couple of years (an extremely rusty player!!), but have been invited to join a few groups. It was suggested that it would be useful if I could play more than just the treble and suggested the tenor.

I think a little bit of "window" shopping in order!!