On Fri, May 15, 2009, William Brohinsky <tiorbin...@gmail.com> said: > Earlier in the renaissance revival, George Kelischek engineered > inexpensive krummhorns using ABS plastic and plastic reeds. They were > far cheaper than wooden krummhorns, and were intended to be quite > popular with schools and amateur groups.
His reeds were (are) a serious improvement over the state of the art (then available from EMS/London and Bradford); however, GK decided to employ metric tube, he also sold sleves so you could adap instruments as needed. They were expensive then, and are even more so now; but have worked well for me in every instrument I have prototyped that could use them - this decades later. I never tried his plastic crumhorns, the visual issues put me off from the get-go, but his reeds are a good thing. They might be being used in bagpipes today, if he still has them in the catalog there must be a market, GK is definately a man with an eye on the marketplace. A major benefit of plastic for woodwinds is that when they get funky you can give em a bath. Not just children who are fond of mixing food with music :-). There were a few plastic recorders made with removable blocks, replace the block with a carefully made cedar one and you had a very good instrument. One caution to all would-be makers, some composite materials exhibit thermo-plastic properties at temperatures not too much higher than comfortable room temperature; such will deform if left in a car parked in the sun. Yes, wooden instruments are often waxed externally, and the wax also softens under similar conditinos, glueing the instrument to its case lining (or bag), and high temperatures are also bad for glue joints; wise musicians plan car trips to avoid such risks, park under trees, on the shady side of the street etc. In this very list we have admitted on several occaisions that there is a need for inexpensive playable instruments. Give this fellows ideas some room, he just might be able to pull it off - and better for him to do so with honest advice. -- Dana Emery To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
