Koch recorders
Jack Campin - bogus address
I can see on the web, Koch (the father) was the pioneering maker
of recorders in the US, and his son carried on till about 1970 or
so. There's nothing to identify the date - just "Koch" marked on
the block (of all places). Made of cocobolo, I believe. It's a
remarkable instrument, brilliant and powerful, worth far more (to
me, anyway) than I paid for it.
But there is an oddity of the design I don't get. The mid-section
to foot-section joint is corked as normal. The head to midsection
joint is bare wood against wood - the most virtuosic piece of turning
I've ever seen (I suppose cocobolo is so hard and stable you can get
away with treating it like metal). But the tenon goes twice as far
into the head than normal - there is a lower wider-bore part that
clears the midsection tenon by about a millimetre all round.
Why? One guess I had was that you could put some sort of sleeve in
to convert it to A=415, but that would be so far out of tune as to
be musically useless, surely? Or am I missing a corps de rechange?
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e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k
Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile 07800 739 557 <http://www.campin.me.uk> Twitter: JackCampin
Jack Campin - bogus address
> I can see on the web, Koch (the father) was the pioneering maker
> of recorders in the US, and his son carried on till about 1970 or
> so. There's nothing to identify the date - just "Koch" marked on
> the block (of all places). Made of cocobolo, I believe. It's a
> remarkable instrument, brilliant and powerful, worth far more (to
> me, anyway) than I paid for it.
>
> But there is an oddity of the design I don't get. The mid-section
> to foot-section joint is corked as normal. The head to midsection
> joint is bare wood against wood - the most virtuosic piece of turning
> I've ever seen (I suppose cocobolo is so hard and stable you can get
> away with treating it like metal). But the tenon goes twice as far
> into the head than normal - there is a lower wider-bore part that
> clears the midsection tenon by about a millimetre all round.
>
> Why? One guess I had was that you could put some sort of sleeve in
> to convert it to A=415, but that would be so far out of tune as to
> be musically useless, surely? Or am I missing a corps de rechange?
Looking at it again, I see it is in fact wood against cork - but the
cork is INSIDE the headjoint socket. I'm going to be in for a fun
time getting that replaced when it wears out.
Nobody here ever seen a Koch recorder? I'd quite like to date this
one. I can't imagine there are many in Europe.
David Warren Steel
Jack Campin - bogus address <bo...@purr.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Looking at it again, I see it is in fact wood against cork - but the
>cork is INSIDE the headjoint socket. I'm going to be in for a fun
>time getting that replaced when it wears out.
>
>Nobody here ever seen a Koch recorder? I'd quite like to date this
>one. I can't imagine there are many in Europe.
I have one, purchased about 1962. My first treble, made
of cherry by William Koch, Sr. of Haverhill, New Hampshire.
A cabinet-maker, Koch began making recorders about 1932; a
1941 Newsweek article is here:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,766185,00.html
Mine has quite thin walls and a wide bore, which may explain
the powerful tone, and, yes, it has the reverse-tenon thing
with the cork on the inside!
--
Warren Steel mu...@olemiss.edu
http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/
University of Mississippi Department of Music (662) 915-5183
