Much woe in the 'Bagger household yesterday: my precious olivewood alto recorder, as purchased in late August, has developed a crack. It seems that this is an occasional problem - and writes off a recorder. It still makes a lovely sound, but...
It's to do with the "block" (it's called a blockflute for a reason), which is usually cedar, expanding at a different rate from the surrounding wood when the condensation from your breath works its way into the wood grain, in this case olive. You have to play recorders in - no more than 15 minutes' use per day for the first 6 weeks or so. It's under a 3 year guarantee.
I have other alto recorders to play, but this is by far the best. I'm about to take it to the sorting office.
I'm clearly going to have to buy at least 3 really good alto recorders so that I can play for 2 hours per day...
