Page last updated: 13th of October 2023
Please note my address is now:
Landstraat 6, 7126AT Bredevoort, The Netherlands.
Special projects
I have a new page on this website showing a special project I have been working on over the last 3 years.
Waiting list for consorts closed until at least 2025
I have a waiting list for consort recorders that extends up to the end of 2027. It was briefly open earlier this year for people on my e-mail newsletter list and I quickly filled all the available spaces. If you are interested in ordering a consort, please write and I will contact you as soon as I reopen my list. I have also taken the decision not to make any more consorts for conservatories and schools, as I prefer to work with individuals rather than institutions.
For baroque recorders and my ”dolcimelo” type early-baroque recorders, the average waiting time is currently about 1–2 years, depending on the type and pitch.
Please read my thoughts about waiting lists and orders under Terms and Conditions. This is not the usual collection of get-out clauses and legal niceties but some explanation of the practical problems of dealing with long waiting lists and shifting orders. I would like to list more of my new instruments for direct and immediate sale online, but I do still make instruments to order.
Waiting list and E-mail newsletter for available instruments
As I try to move away from a waiting list and hope to be able to offer more instruments for immediate sale, I periodically send out an email newsletter with any unsold instruments to people who have subscribed to my “e-mail alert” for advance notice of any spare instruments. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, please fill out your name and e-mail address on the form here. If you are interested in a specific type of recorder it is worth sending me an e-mail to ask for the approximate delivery time.
Ordering a recorder
I have a new simple Order Form and I now ask just for a description of the instruments needed. I will then communicate with you about your personal requirements. I do not take any deposits for orders, again please read my Terms & Conditions before ordering.
UPDATE : Grenadilla, Dalbergia melanoxylon (African Blackwood) and CITES as of March 2017
Since 2nd of January 2017, grenadilla, Dalbergia melanoxylon has been on the CITES Appendix II list of protected species and I now have the latest information on this issue from the Dutch CITES representative and certificating authority. As a result, I have decided to halt all sales of recorders made from grenadilla to countries outside of the EU. While it is technically still possible to take objects made from grenadilla outside of the EU, the licensing and administration is both complicated and time consuming and I fear in the longer term, grenadilla instruments will inevitably suffer the same fate as ivory and the restrictions will become ever tighter.
While in principal, musicians travelling across national borders with less than 10kg of grenadilla are currently exempt from any formal CITES certification, they do need to prove the instrument was made with pre-certification wood stocks. For owners of grenadilla recorders that I made before 2017, you may well be asked to provide documentation that the instrument was made before 2017 and even though I have never stamped my instruments with serial numbers, my original invoice should suffice. In the future I’d advise owners of my grenadilla recorders to obtain a CITES musical instrument certificate from their local CITES certification body, or representatives, as it may well make travelling across national borders easier in the future.
If you wish to send a grenadilla instrument for repair from outside of the EU, I will do my best to help you, but cannot take any responsibly, should the instrument be impounded, delayed (or worse) by the customs authorities. In any case the recorder should be sent with a copy of the original invoice and on both the package and in the documentation, indicated that it is being sent to the EU for repair.
Although I currently have enough of a stock of this wood for another 20-30 recorders, I do not intend to buy any more in the future.