Customer Reviews

Amateur Wind Instrument-Rev

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this volume about two years ago and finally had the chance to make some instruments based upon it. Overall the book is extremely good and it appears to be the only reference of its sort. I enjoy broswing the book and reading Robinson's informative essays on each instrument. It is an enjoyable book even if you never actually make any of the instruments in it.

I have looked for other references, but this seems to be the only one of its kind. Although there is a need for a more detailed construction-oriented manual of this type, I was able to make a quite satisfactory tenor cornamuse and a slightly less satisfactory tenor racket from Robinson's instructions.

If you intend to make instruments I would recommend that you find examples of the instrument you wish to make since there are many details that no description could adequately deal with.

My two major complaints are as follows. First, the instrument dimensions are given in metric units but the grid upon which the drawings are placed is in inches. A consistent use of one system or the other would make the drawings much easier to follow. Second, the drawings are vary highly in their quality. The baroque rackett, for example, is very clean and easy to follow, but the oboe and shawm drawings are of much lower quality.

The best thing would be a second, expanded edition of the book with better drawings.

(As one last note, if you are trying to find the "shell auger" mentioned in the book you will need to search for it from a wood turning catalogue as a "lamp auger")

This book covers early wind instrument construction with the hobbiest in mind. It includes construction drawings and measured pictures. I felt it was best in covering recorders. The Brass instruments were a little shortchanged. I was hoping for a later model clarinet but the one illustrated would be eaiser to build. If you are a woodworker with a Lathe this is a neat book.

Any where you go the price of even a poorly made fife is around 40$ Then you have things like crumhorns and racketts. Racketts list from 250 on up and good luck even finding a Tenor recorder for less than 300 (U.S.) So just on a plans basis the book is a good investment.
It's not a shop how-to manual. The book assumes you allready have and know how to use your tools. The author provides the needed information to make simple (Renassance-ish time period) wood wind instruments. It's exactly what it says is, an amature guide and from the stand point, it's an excellant book and an excellant buy

I would recomend this book to anyone that is seriously considering the crafting of woodwind instruments. The book provides basic plans for an eclectic mix of instruments and helped point out some of the problems that I was having in my own wood working adventures.
However, there were many areas that I felt were incomplete. The book had brief descriptions of techniques that I felt should have been expanded further and some of the plans should have had views from different aspects and in higher detail.
What I appreciate about this books the techniques for making your own tapered reamers and links to organizations that will help me to further and expand my knowledge on instrument craft.

Tony 'Baldrick' Robinson's 'Amateur Wind Instrument Maker' is an excellent guide to the craft of instrument building. As a semi-professional Pan-pipe player, I have often been disappointed with the timbre of mass-produced instruments. To achieve results here one requires a good degree of competence in various skills, but they are worth the effort. Doreen assures me that my rendition of 'Apache' now comes across far more effectively than on any factory-made instrument. This is a marvellous pre-cursor to his later book 'Amateur Grand Piano Maker'.

I bought this recently on Amazon because after about 5 moves, my original copy of the first edition had gone missing. After re-reading, all of the techniques and plans appear the same, with changes to the resources and vendors lists. While all of the techniques and info are still very helpful and valid, many of the vendors and sources listed are no longer in business, but thanks to search engines such as Google, the components can still be located. I built a cornamuse with my first edition, and am currently gathering special tools and wood to have a try at making some recorders from the plans in this book. Good book, but I dropped a star for the out of date resources.

this book did not cover what i had hoped that it would so was a waste of effort