Conrad Mollenhauer Recorders

April 2009 Price List


Ninjo Recorders

New in 2006 was this extremely inexpensive soprano recorder for entry-level players. Made of pearwood and provided with the same zippered semicircular canvas bag as the PRIMA instruments, this innovative instrument offered a viable wooden alternative to the better-quality plastic instruments from the various Japanese makers. Regrettably, this model has been discontinued; we have only a limited number of these instruments left in stock.

Instrument Features Wood Choices List Price Net Price
Soprano in c'' two piece, double holes pearwood 74.00 68.00

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Student Recorders

Newly redesigned in 2009 as a substitute for the now discontinued Ninjo soprano is this excellent inexpensive soprano recorder for entry-level players. This instrument is made of pearwood and has a zippered semicircular canvas bag similar to the PRIMA instruments. Although slightly more expensive than the Ninjo, it is the least expensive high-quality wooden soprano that is currently available.

Instrument Features Wood Choices List Price Net Price
Soprano in c'' two piece, double holes pearwood 92.00 83.00

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PRIMA Recorders

These all-new Mollenhauer instruments are of hybrid construction, with textured plastic headjoints and wooden bodies. Although rather unorthodox in appearance, they do play very well and sound extremely rich and full. The headjoints, thanks to a novel windway design, are somewhat less prone to clogging than most all-plastic instruments. Both models are provided with cloth bags.

Instrument Features Wood Choices List Price Net Price
Soprano in c'' two piece, double holes beige plastic headjoint/pearwood body 50.00 45.00
Alto in f' three piece, double holes beige plastic headjoint/pearwood body 143.00 130.00

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Canta Recorders

Completely new for 1999 was the Canta student soprano recorder of pearwood, with a full, broad, slightly windy and spread tone quality and good high register response. Since then, the series has been expanded with the introduction of alto, keyless and keyed tenor, and bent neck bass instruments. Tenors with additional middle keys and a bentneck greatbass are new for 2009. This series replaces and is vastly superior to the previous Chorus student instruments.

The Canta instruments are particularly well suited for renaissance ensemble music, provide a viable low-cost alternative to renaissance reproduction recorders, and are a good deal easier to manage as well. The smaller instruments are supplied with a semicircular padded cloth pouch with zippered closure; the bentneck tenor, bass, and greatbass recorders are provided with excellent form-fitted hard cases made by Jacob Winter.

Instrument Features Wood Choices List Price Net Price
Soprano in c'' two piece, double holes pearwood 107.00 97.00
Alto in f' three piece, double holes pearwood 281.00 255.00
Alto in f' three piece, double hole, double key pearwood 422.00 384.00
Tenor in c' three piece, double holes, keyless pearwood 449.00 408.00
Tenor in c' three piece, double hole, double key pearwood 604.00 549.00
Tenor in c' three piece, double hole, double key, two additonal keys pearwood 889.00 808.00
Tenor in c' bentneck model, three piece, double holes, keyless pearwood 562.00 510.00
Tenor in c' bentneck model, three piece, double hole, double key pearwood 716.00 651.00
Tenor in c' bentneck model, three piece, double hole, double key, two additional keys pearwood 964.00 876.00
Bass in f three piece, double hole, double key, bent neck design pearwood 1,440.00 1,309.00
Greatbass in c five piece, nine keys, bent neck design pearwood 3,244.00 2,949.00

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Dream Recorders

Designed in collaboration with the Dutch maker Adriana Breukink, these are relatively inexpensive wide bore neo-renaissance soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders made of lightly-stained pearwood with dark brown rings. Inexpensive plastic sopranos were introduced in 2004. The alto is also now available in ebony as well, and this model is very well suited to the early 17th century solo repertoire.

These instruments produce a uniform, well-focused, but rather plain tone quality, with a full middle and low register and good high register response; they offer a choice of single or double tone holes and use standard modern fingerings. Prices for 2006 were appreciably reduced from previous years. The wooden instruments, as modified and serviced in our workshop, do not have the tuning and response problems common to the unserviced production instruments. The plastic models, however, are sold only "as is" with no custom tuning, as they cannot be improved to our standards. They are provided with semicircular padded cloth pouches with zippered closure, similar to those provided with the Chorus and Canta series instruments.

Instrument Features Wood Choices List Price Net Price
Soprano in c'' two piece, single holes white or black plastic †36.00 †33.00
two piece, double holes †36.00 †33.00
two piece, single holes pearwood, dark brown rings 156.00 142.00
two piece, double holes 161.00 146.00
Alto in f' two piece, double holes pearwood, dark brown rings 407.00 370.00
two piece, double holes ebony 982.00 893.00
Tenor in c' three piece, double hole, double key pearwood, dark brown rings 992.00 902.00
Bass in f bent neck, three piece, double hole, double key pearwood, dark brown rings 1,721.00 1,564.00

†Please note: the plastic Dream soprano recorder models are sold "as is" without any custom tuning or adjustment.

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Denner Recorders

These recently redesigned instruments are excellent quality modern baroque-style recorders of moderate cost. They have curved windways, are rich, complex, sweet, and slightly reedy in tone quality, and offer superb intonation and high register response. They are available in pearwood as well as a wide variety of tropical hardwoods and are particularly well suited to baroque solo and ensemble repertoire. The smaller instruments are supplied with zippered semicircular padded cloth bags with genuine leather trim; the bass and greatbass are supplied with an excellent custom fitted hard case made by Jacob Winter. The alto model was recently redesigned to incorporate design elements of Denner style instruments made by the late Australian recorder maker Fred Morgan.

Instrument Features Wood Choices List Price Net Price
Sopranino in f'' two piece pearwood 248.00 206.00
boxwood 288.00 240.00
palisander 353.00 294.00
Soprano in c'' three piece pearwood 245.00 204.00
boxwood 363.00 303.00
palisander 440.00 367.00
olivewood 498.00 415.00
tulipwood 526.00 438.00
grenadilla 526.00 438.00
Alto in f' three piece, double holes pearwood 403.00 335.00
boxwood 599.00 499.00
palisander 794.00 662.00
olivewood 902.00 752.00
tulipwood 983.00 820.00
grenadilla 983.00 820.00
Tenor in c' keyless, double holes pearwood 614.00 512.00
boxwood 740.00 617.00
palisander 980.00 817.00
double c'-c#' key, double hole pearwood 821.00 684.00
boxwood 947.00 790.00
palisander 1,188.00 990.00
double c'-c#' key, double hole, two additional keys pearwood 1,107.00 922.00
boxwood 1,233.00 1,027.00
palisander 1,473.00 1,227.00
Bass in f double f-f# key, two additional keys
direct or bocal blow, hard case
pearwood 1,886.00 1,571.00
Greatbass in c three piece, ten keys
direct blow, hard case
pearwood 4,079.00 3,399.00

†The Mollenhauer Denner soprano recorder was awarded the coveted Deutscher Musikinstrumentenpreis for 1999 for the most meritorious woodwind design in the entire German musical instrument industry. Excerpts from the jurors' comments about this instrument were as follows:

„Damit setzt sich die Flöte insgesamt weit vom übrigen Feld ab."

„…hervorragendes Instrument… mit einer insgesamt schlüssigen Gesamtkonzeption…"

„…besonders gutes Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis."

We congratulate our colleagues at the Mollenhauer workshop for this singular achievement.

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Modern Recorders

These innovative new instruments are a further refinement and development by Mollenhauer of designs originally developed by the well-known recorder maker Joachim Paetzold of Tübingen, Germany, in collaboration with the young recorder virtuoso Nicolaj Tarasov. The alto recorder is about 1.25 inches longer than a standard alto recorder and has a double key for f'-f#' which permits larger tone holes for the notes f#', g', and g#', eliminating the thin, nasal, or "pinched" quality caused by the small diameter double holes found on most modern recorders. This instrument has a clear, non-reedy, warm, flute-like tone quality which is highly uniform in color and volume throughout the entire range of two and half fully chromatic octaves. It has excellent projection and carrying power, is an ideal instrument for performing music of the late 18th century and 19th centuries, and complements the tone quality of historical and modern pianos extremely well. Our custom retuning of this instrument permits the use of much simpler fingerings in the third octave than the extremely cumbersome ones recommended by the maker. Palisander and ebony models are provided with a custom fitted hard case. New for 2004 were three new alto models with a triple key mechanism that extends the lower range down an additional half tone to e'. New for 2005 was a companion soprano recorder in pearwood or grenadilla with triple b'-c''-c#'' key.

Instrument Features Wood Choices List Price Net Price
Modern soprano recorder in c'' triple b'-c''-c#'' key pearwood 1,327.00 948.00
grenadilla 1,849.00 1,321.00
Modern alto recorder in f' double f'-f#' key pearwood 1,198.00 856.00
palisander 1,412.00 1,008.00
ebony 1,857.00 1,327.00
triple e'-f'-f#' key pearwood 1,602.00 1,144.00
palisander 1,846.00 1,318.00
ebony 2,334.00 1,667.00


Mollenhauer CD Recordings

We now offer four private label CD recordings featuring instruments from the Mollenhauer workshop. We are making these available to our customers because they are unavailable through normal commercial channels.

"Spinnaker" contains soft jazz played on the Mollenhauer PRIMA soprano and alto recorders by French jazz artist Jean-François Rousson and his combo. This album provides some very pleasant easy listening. "Cantabile" is a recital of late 18th and 19th century music performed by Nicolaj Tarasov and Michael Weiger on a variety of Modern recorders, including prototypes of other sizes not yet in production.

"Die Moderne Altflöte" is a demonstration of the capabilities of the new Mollenhauer Modern alto recorder in a wide variety of repertoire, performed by Nicolaj Tarasov. "Adri's Traumflöte" is a demonstration recording played on Mollenhauer Dream soprano, alto, and tenor recorders by a variety of players including Marion Verbruggen, Paul Leenhouts, designer Adriana Breukink herself, and a number of others.

Title Description Performer List Price Net Price
Spinnaker soft jazz played on Mollenhauer PRIMA recorders Jean-François Rousson, recorder 35.00 32.00
Cantabile 18th & 19th century music played on Mollenhauer Modern recorders Nikolaj Tarasov, recorder
Michael Weiger, fortepiano
35.00 32.00
Die Moderne Sopranblockflöte demonstration recording played on Mollenhauer Modern soprano recorder Nikolaj Tarasov, recorder 19.00 17.00
Die Moderne Altblockflöte demonstration recording played on Mollenhauer Modern alto recorder Nikolaj Tarasov, recorder 19.00 17.00
Adri's Traumflöte demonstration recording played on Mollenhauer Dream recorders Marion Verbruggen, Paul Leenhouts,
Adriana Breukink, et al.
19.00 17.00

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Maarten Helder Harmonic Recorders

Superb new solo alto and tenor recorders with extensive modern keywork and a wide range of over three octaves. Both models are now equipped with a "Sound Unit," which includes three interchangeable windway roofs and a special mechanism which allows modification of the voicing and control of tone quality and dynamics during performance by the lips. Provided with handsome custom-fitted hard case. This instrument is intended for the professional performer of nineteenth and twentieth century music. and is custom-made on special order only. All prices are net and not subject to sale discounts.

Instrument Features Wood Choices List Price Net Price
Solo alto recorder in f' extensive modern keywork, low e key rio palisander rosewood 5,038.00 3,359.00
Solo tenor recorder in c' extensive modern keywork, low b key rio palisander rosewood 6,182.00 4,121.00

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Picco Flute

The Picco flute is intended as a transitional instrument from recorder to transverse flute for young players. It is essentially a soprano recorder body with a transverse flute headjoint. In spite of its extremely low price, it is nicely crafted and plays very well. It is the perfect choice for a recorder player wanting an inexpensive introduction to renaissance and baroque flute playing.

Instrument Features Wood List Price Net Price
Picco soprano flute double holes pearwood 149.00 135.00


Kynsecker Renaissance Recorders

These are authentic reproduction early 17th century-style recorders after a set of surviving original instruments by Hieronymous F. Kynsecker in the Nuremberg Germanisches Museum; they feature two piece construction with unique elaborate headjoint profile, wide, largely cylindrical bores with narrow, curved windways and largediameter single tone holes; they were scaled from the original pitch of a'=462 to a'=440 Hz., have a working range of two and a half octaves in the smaller sizes. The unique alto recorder in g' after Ganassi features a very wide bore with a pronounced flare in footjoint and has almost a three octave range. The Kynsecker piccolo and sopranino recorders are supplied with cardboard boxes; the Kynsecker soprano, alto, and keyless tenors have a handsome semicircular black leather bag. The keyed tenors, basses, and greatbass are provided with custom fitted hard cases made by Jacob Winter. We recommend these instruments only to experienced players with well-developed playing techniques; less experienced players would probably be better off using the much less expensive Canta series instruments for renaissance ensemble music.

Instrument Features Wood Choices List Price Net Price
Piccolo in c''' one piece, single holes maple 441.00 339.00
plumwood 532.00 409.00
Sopranino in f'' two piece, single holes maple 498.00 383.00
plumwood 597.00 459.00
Soprano in c'' two piece, single holes maple 532.00 409.00
plumwood 636.00 489.00
Alto in g' two piece, single holes maple 740.00 569.00
plumwood 860.00 661.00
Alto in f' two piece, single holes maple 740.00 569.00
plumwood 860.00 661.00
Tenor in c' two piece, keyless maple 940.00 723.00
plumwood 1,063.00 818.00
Tenor in c' key and fontanelle maple 1,543.00 1,187.00
plumwood 1,671.00 1,285.00
Bass in f direct blow, single f key maple 2,887.00 2,221.00
plumwood stained pearwood 3,050.00 2,346.00
Greatbass in c bocal blow, single key maple 4,926.00 3,790.00
Ganassi alto in g' two piece pearwood TNA TNA

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Baroque Recorders

The Morgan Special Edition baroque alto recorders, originally designed by the late Australian maker Fred Morgan (1940-1999) and now being produced in collaboration with the latter's widow, are patterned after an outstanding original instrument in the Copenhagen museum collection and are available in modern pitch in a choice of South American or European boxwood. New for 2006 is a low-pitch version of this instrument, available only in European boxwood. All instruments have extremely narrow, highly curved windways and labium, heavily undercut toneholes, and produce a sweet, gentle, rich, quiet but complex tone quality. These instruments are a good deal easier to manage and much less quirky than most reproduction baroque recorders.

Instrument Features Wood Choices List Price Net Price
Denner baroque soprano in c'' a'=440, double holes
soft leather case, thread-lapped joints
unstained European boxwood 676.00 563.00
Denner baroque alto in f' a'=440, double holes
soft leather case, thread-lapped joints
stained or unstained European boxwood 1,585.00 1,219.00
Zapatero boxwood 2,016.00 1,550.00
a'=415, double holes
soft leather case, thread-lapped joints
stained or unstained European boxwood 2,016.00 1,550.00


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Copyright, Antique Sound Workshop, Ltd., 2009. All rights reserved.