Yamaha YRT-304 B II Tenor Recorder

Best tenor at an affordable price

In spite of its plastic soul, this tenor is better than most industrial wooden tenor recorders. The tuning is really good and the registers are balanced (high register includes c# with no need to top the bell).

Some improvement can be done (carefully) to drastically improve its flexibility: finger-holes edges (usually sharp out of factory) should be slightly rounded with sandpaper and (a more delicate operation) the windway entrance (the place one blows air in) should be "chamfered" - a 30 to 45 º downside ramp has to be cut off. For best results ask a recorder maker to "update" your tenor.

The obvious con is the volume but, let's face it, recorders are not meant to compete in loudness least you use some sort of amplification, why not?

A great choice for a first tenor or for an instrument to play for hours on end without tiring it out as is customary with wooden instruments.

Good instrument for beginners

An instrument with a very nice sound, especially in the middle range. The top high notes (B,C) may be more finicky to produce, but nothing that cannot be solved with improved technique. Same for the low C.

My hands are average man hands and had no problem reaching all the holes.

Even being a complete beginner I managed to produce nice sounding melodies after 1 month of practice.

Nice sound but a very big stretch!

So, this instrument is a really nice practise instrument, inexpensive yet with a nice sound. The Low C and D don't always respond so well, but this might be due to my lack of technique with this size (on my Yamaha plastic Alto I do not have any problems with the low notes.) Unfortunately, the stretch for the fingers is very big (bigger than Aulos), so this might be challenging for some people to play. I will return mine as it is just too much of a painful stretch and get an instrument modified with keys and a bent neck.