The Whiteladies Road Shop is now closed. I am working exclusively from home. Please talk to the answering machine if I do not pick up the phone. Listen to the message, it gives me more time to reach the phone. My presence here is not guaranteed. If possible, use email to contact me.

This is a 'one man' business. If you are planning a visit, an email or phone call beforehand is now essential. The preferred visiting days are Monday and Tuesday. I am not available to answer the phone personally on Wednesdays.

There is an answer-phone/fax on the line, + 44 (0)117 9735149. (I am not likely to answer you on a Wednesday.) Please avoid phoning outside 'office hours' if your call is not really urgent. Please do not leave spoken orders unless you know exactly what you want and have ordered from me previously. I will be happy to ring you back... please let me know when you will be in, otherwise I will end up talking to your machine. (If you delay speaking the fax will kick in automatically.) A fax is preferable, you may press "send" at any time. The present machine will accept computer generated faxes. If your fax is handwritten please take care to ensure that your message survives the transmission... write boldly and fairly large.

To make things easier for me please take note of the following points.

• If you have ordered before, please be sure to quote your surname and postcode and let me know of any changes.
  
  
• Payment details should not be conveyed to me. I will provide a personalised link to a secure payment page on the Cardsave server. (Except for telephone orders.)
  
  
• In an effort to reduce time consuming queries I am have altered my working practices. Modern, impersonal, financial systems are now the rule rather than the exception and things will be easier for me if I fall into step with them. This will not affect the few very regular clients or 'corporate' clients who use their account status.
  
  If you have used a card to pay me in the previous 12 months I can recover all details from the records Cardsave hold and perform a transaction by 'cross reference'. I will assume that orders, from existing clients, that do not mention payment, should be paid by 'cross reference' where this is possible.
  
  No payment will be taken until the goods are packed for despatch.
  
  
• Tell me if there is a real deadline.
  
  
• Ask for exactly what you want and use Edition Numbers as well as Composer and Title if possible.
  
  
• It is very difficult to identify works that appear in collections. Please quote the title of the volume required.
  
  
• Please do not leave advice requests on the answer-phone, email me or try again.
  
  
• Please use email or snail mail in preference to the phone. Now that I work from home I frequently work what might be termed 'unsocial' hours. Email can be answered at times when a phone call would be very unwelcome.
  
  
• My email address is:-   john@saundrecs.co.uk
  
  
• The web-site url is:-   www.saundrecs.co.uk
     now aliased from     www.saundersrecorders.co.uk
                         and     www.saundersrecorders.com
  
  
• My mailing address is now Unit 205, 179 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 2AG . I am not visitable at this address.

Saunders Recorders
News Letter

john@saundrecs.co.uk

Some tutors and pupils at Chetham's School of Music rely on me to supply recorder music. This contact has produced a request to help with publicity for their Open Morning on Saturday 18th. February 2012. I am happy to oblige. Click the link to see their 'flyer' from where you can move to find out more.

I have just discovered, 'the hard way' that I cannot access card payment details more that 12 months old. This will only have a minimal effect on my way of working. Several references on my pages have had to be updated. I hope that I have found them all.

The new Peacock Press publications of "The Solo Recorder" set me thinking about the duplication of pieces between them and other compilations. After much page turning I have produced a cross reference table for the most popular pieces. The well known "15 Solos". This new page is linked from the relevant places on my solo recorder list and also from here. You will also find that there are more references on my site to lists 'A', 'B' and 'C' in an effort to make it easier to find a title. These designators are in line with those used by examination boards.

The new Trinity Woodwind Syllabus and the new Trinity repertoire books have arrived. My LPM/Dolce order has been supplied too. I'm about to order again... I've got my fingers crossed! (I have updated my page on examinations to reflect the Trinity situation and made a link to a communication from the chief examiner. Please check here if this is likely to affect you and your pupils.)

I have just received a new delivery of Aura recorders. The cheaper ones are replacing recorders branded 'Dolmetsch' but are otherwise virtually the same. Some of the model numbers have changed. Unfortunately I have now cleared my longstanding stock and I have had to make some significant price increases.

There are now more comments on tuning.

Many of my pages are now dated 11th. Oct. 2011. I have been through the more important ones adding some coding to specify the font. I hope that this makes them more readable on Linux computers, which use different fonts to Windows. Its more about size than style. There is remakable variation in the amount of line space that fonts require. With so much tabulated information I wanted to reduce the number of 'wrap rounds' as much as possible. It is my first attempt at setting 'style'. Firefox and Chrome do not seem to respond to the old, and 'deprecated', <basefont> tag.

Now that we are promised 'enhanced web experience' with the introduction of HTML5 and other 'improvements' I have treated myself to an up to date book on web site construction. I've picked up a few new tricks and changed all my sound pages to make them more accessible to Firefox and Safari users. In fact everyone should now see and hear more or less the same thing without any extra clicking around. I think they are all ok but there is one detail (!DOCTYPE html) that I haven't changed in many of them. The effect was puzzling, and generally I have left well alone where the page worked in IE8. Please let me know if you find a 'player' that doesn't work for you.

Following a comment from a client I have spent many happy hours producing a recorder listing by price. Its very 'bare bones' but it does have all the links and model information from my original list. I hope the two will live together happily. While I was at it I've spiced up my link icons so that they may attract more attention. I'm not fully decided on the ultimate fate of the 'alert' noted below.

Many viewers do not discover the links to pictures and sound on my recorder page. As an experiment I have added an 'alert' message. It comes 'free' with your browser and I cannot alter its appearance or the wake up sound that comes with it. (All browsers are different.) Its beginning to drive me round the bend as I edit the page and view it with IE8! Hopefully, you won't be reloading the page as often as I do. I'll wait and see if I get any complaints... No complaints yet, but I have hit on an idea to keep it in check. I, for one have had enough of it!

I have added a few more comments to my notes on recorder fingerings and returns.

A couple of years ago I acquired an old pamphlet extoling the virtues of Saunders Recorders penned by Rod Nelson, a friend of Gordon Saunders and some time maker of renaissance recorders. This one was used as a Christmas card. There can't be many others about, I'd never seen it before and there were none lurking in the depths of the filing cabinet. I'm sure Rod will be happy for me to share it with you. It is not to be taken seriously. Any references that might be thought to apply to anybody alive or dead are entirely coincidental. Saunders Recorders is not (anymore... ) the world's largest recorder shop and the facilities mentioned are a gross exageration. However, visitors are always made welcome, plied with coffee and invited to stroke the cat. Go on, satisfy your curiosity. Click here.

Following a query regarding the fitting of the mouth pipe of an early model Kung 'Classica' Great Bass I have prepared a pdf page of notes on the subject. If you have a 'Classica' bass or Great Bass with a side entry pipe that won't stay put this may be the answer to your prayers! Click here.

I have revised my music help page and included some comments on the choice of music for those of you who are daunted by the huge selection.

All systems are now back to normal. There are no email non-delivery messages being generated and the answerphone has a new drive belt and is happy for the moment. I will keep my fingers crossed as it is impossible to test it. The trouble appeared after random periods of inactivity.

I am back in Bristol and progressing through the backlog of work. Jess is very glad that we are back and has shown her appreciation with lots of rubbing round our ankles, parking herself on my keyboard and pouncing on my mouse. Subterfuge or armoured gauntlets are needed to move her on. We have both received 'love bites'...

It was not easy to keep up to date with email from West Cumbria. Mobile phone coverage did not extend to our holiday cottage and neither WiFi nor my O2 dongle would download data from the web in Keswick on Thursday 14th. I met an old friend, a former neighbour, and spent two evenings playing ensemble music with their group of friends. (It really is a small world.) Good fun! And not something I've done for a long time. We had very good weather for most of the time and we walked all round Ennerdale Water on Tuesday 12th. when it was less hot. (I'm pleased to report that I suffered no unpleasant after effects to my hips.) I'll be posting a few pictures shortly.

I have changed my way of handling card payments. Please click this link to the new text further up this page for further information.

I have incorporated the changes mentioned above and moved my notes on mail order. If you have looked for them from a cache you will now find a link to them. I hope I have made the necessary changes to all the site links. The new page is here.

The family gathering and service in Sheffield to remember and give thanks for the short life my my grandson Ben was, for me, a challenging occasion of great contrasts. Tears, laughter, music by Madness (Ben's favourite) pictures and memories of Ben, recounted, through tears, by his teachers, and by Dave and Louise. Yet it was not an overwhelmingly sad occasion. How could it be with so many of Ben's friends and my other grandchildren with us, even at the grave side. We were all there together, with friends from Dave and Louise's Christian community, wearing something green (Ben's favourite colour), saying 'Goodbye' and recognising the one certainty in the life of everyone. Looking back with thanks and pleasure, and forward with hope.

The image above is a link. You may also like to read Dave's open letter of thanks to all who gave support and prayed for them.

Our special thanks go to all at Bluebell Wood Hospice who made the last few weeks so much easier for everyone to bear.

Every so often I cotton on to a new aspect of web page design and spend hours tweaking things! Such a process is on-going at the moment (you may notice minor changes in presentation) and before long there will be an upheaval. Those of you who may be puzzled by some additional text appearing and my repetition of certain points in an inelegant way will have to bear with me. I am doing it in the hope that some of my pages will be rated higher by search engines and be more likely to appear as a result of a search. I'm hopeful that I can manage the changes without the dreaded 'page not found' messages appearing. If you find me from a shortcut 'favourite' it may take a click or two more than usual. The changes will be as 'seamless' as I can make them. (Funny how one picks up the lingo... )

I had a pleasant weekend at the SRP festival in Cheddar. It was good to be able to put faces to some of the voices on the phone. There was the usual crop of queries regarding the tuning of perfectly good recorders! From the sounds that came wafting down the corridor I think that once again I need to comment on the necessity for a tuning session before an ad hoc group starts to play together and the need to tune down to accommodate the odd players out. They are probably the ones who are not sharp of concert pitch A=440.

Some longstanding paragraphs have been removed from this page. I've also been through my recorder page and tidied up some of the entries regarding 'palisander', the usually red/brown wood most English people know as 'rosewood', and 'rosewood', aka rozenholz in German, that we English know as 'tulip wood'. I hope that I have this troublesome issue fully under control now. Please use the provided catalogue numbers when ordering instruments and music.

Online payment facilities for customers are now in place. Also, as part of a process of modernization, following my establishing online banking facilities, I am now much more comfortable with direct payments and bank details now feature on my invoices.

I've had to do some research (again!) into Trinity Guildhall syllabus pieces. As a result, I have found some new information, including advanced descant recorder sight reading examples, and I have updated my TG page. I have also expanded my notes on the various editions of Handel solo sonatas.

Life here just wasn't the same without feline company and we have now been joined by Jess. She was about ten months old when she arrived (in August 2010) and has been quite a shock to the system! She has settled down now and established her claim to the best spots in the house. Pictures, for fellow cat lovers.

If you can't find what you want, or wonder whether it is in stock, do try my 'All Products' button for my pdf stock list. (If Java is not enabled you can access it via the hyperlinks hidden under the buttons in the top frame, or from my overview page.)

March 2010 saw a significant change in the recorder world. 'Dolmetsch Musical Instruments' ceased trading. The 'Nova' plastic models and the machine made models will continue to be available (from AAFAB). I have some hand made instruments in stock. No new hand made instruments will be made but there are some still available from Haslemere. Nobody has died, there are no issues regarding service or guarantee.

I have revised my page including details of Trinity Guildhall publications. There have been several price changes. You can now also view a pdf page of all their recorder publications, with contents listed.

From time to time I get puzzled comments over the phone from people who have had their email bounce back. They arise because the url that shows in your address bar is a shortened form that seemed a good idea many years ago. More recently I was able to purchase a domain with the long, user friendly, url that I advertise. Either will work. But not a corrupted version combining elements of each. Clicking a link or copying and pasting a url is always the most reliable approach. If you type a url you must get the spelling right. With apologies to the meerkat...

'My domain is saundersrecorders.com. Not SaundAnyThingElse.com. Eeeek. The answer is simples.'

Now that even low end of the market computers are so fast and competent I have made my pdf listing more accessible, and, at the suggestion of a client, it now always opens full screen, or in a new tab, instead of within one of my 'frames'. (You may need to adjust your browser options to take full advantage of tabs.) You can search this list by title or any fragment of the detail of what you are looking for. Everything I stock is listed there. There is even a section devoted to items no longer available.

My information page is getting longer. As a result of recent emailed queries I have added notes on 'Clogging' and 'Thumb Hole Bushing'. I've been asked if I've written a book on recorders, with the suggestion that perhaps I should. If I do, the basis of it will be my information web page, tidied up and properly organised for hard copy. I see that Tim has expanded his web page, with pictures, to produce the little book mentioned below.

In a change to my previous practice I have added details of privately owned instruments to my used instrument listing. There is a separate page. I look upon it as a 'small ads' page and will be happy to expand it (for a negotiable fee, depending on the amount of work involved, about £5.00 each item). It is linked from my used recorder list but you can go to it directly by clicking here. I have several delighted clients.

I have added a pdf version of the latest Trinity Guildhall diploma lists to the folder of Trinity Guildhall information. My version includes edition numbers. It has taken hours to produce, I hope you find the information useful.

As a result of an awkward encounter on the phone regarding the playing of high quality trebles I have added to my comments on top notes, top F# in particular. Perhaps I should have taken this bug bear more seriously. It has previously been 'off my radar'. If the recorder is not your 'first instrument' it is hard to appreciate that even a high quality treble is not guaranteed to produce this note. This situation is not unique. An experienced flute player shopping for a piccolo will always ask 'Will it play top B?. Most of them don't! I have four piccolos and only one will produce top B. Its not my first choice instrument, but if I ever have to play for the Shostakovitch piano concerto again it will be the one that I use.

The business phone now rings at my home. I am still in a state of partially organised chaos (I think I always will be!) but I am now back up to my former standard of delivery (usually the next day). There is an answer-phone/fax connected as before. Be prepared to be greeted by it. I cannot delay its pickup by more than four rings. Please listen to the message, it gives me an extra 16 seconds to get to the phone, or find the cordless extension. (Like the TV 'remote', so aptly named, it is often out of reach.) I work at the top of a very tall Victorian house and running up and down three flights of stairs is doing wonders for my figure. Please do not use my private line for business purposes. If at all possible, place orders and make enquiries by email, fax, or ordinary mail.

I am visitable (by appointment, Mondays and Tuesdays are preferred) and live not far from the location of the old shop. The rail service to the nearby Clifton Down station seems good and several visitors have used it. I will happily let you know my address, but I do not want to publish it on the web. If you need something urgently please telephone me. I am prepared to deliver goods myself, without charge, within the Bristol area and perhaps further afield, depending on where you are.

I now have a new postal address. You can find it on the overview page. Do not try to visit me there. The 'Unit' in question is (literally) about the size of a shoe box!

If you fancy combining recorder playing with a holiday in France you may be interested in the courses run by one of my clients. Click here for details.

I am receiving music orders for holiday courses and summer schools. Please bear in mind that this is an unusual and fairly unpredictable demand. I may not have sufficient copies in stock to provide my usual almost instant service. Indeed, at times, not even the publisher's main UK agent has sufficient stock. When the date of the course gets close do not rely on me, or any other dealer, to be able to supply you without delay. Sometimes the music is not actually printed when the set works list is published. Be prepared, order early, and do some practice! If you are a course organiser, for goodness sake, find out what the supply position is before setting the course music. You can run the list past me first, for me to check out if you like. It will save a lot of agony in the long term.

Please let me know if you find misprints in any of my listed music. I have learned a little more coding and can add correction notes to the listings. The first of these at the end of the study section. The popular 11 Studies by Ton v.d. Valk, HU 3237 has several. You may like to check your opinion against those of other musicians.

Several times I have been asked for advertising copy to go in programmes and such like. To make everyone's life easier I have produced some standard advertisements, in pdf and Word format, and uploaded them to my web site. The link is on the overview page, or HERE. Select the format best suited to your needs. V is portrait and H is landscape format. Please do not be afraid to approach me for payment in respect of advertising.

Do please explore the site by checking "Other Topics" or other pages on the menu provided. I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time answering queries for which links to complete answers are already in place. All my pages link back to a central selection menu.

I would like to state my support for the AB's on-going campaign reduce the illegal reproduction of copyright music. Their attack is a bit too strong for permanent inclusion on this page, click here to find out why!

Best Wishes

John Everingham FTCL

john@saundrecs.co.uk