5 thoughts on “The Bizarre Andes 25F Keyboard Wind Instrument”

1. I played one today at Macari’s, London. It’s similar to a Melodica but has whistles instead of reeds. If you like, it’s a keyboard pan-pipe (hence the name “Andes”) or a mouth-pumped pipe organ! It has a very sweet recorder-like sound, but is expensive (£129) for its usefulness and musical range. Pity…

2. I bought one!
   Also from Macari’s! Couldn’t resist it.Will be using it to double lines.
   Oh what fun!

3. Purchased one through Suzuki website. It’s similar enough to the recorder that I plan to use it for a medieval/renaissance group playing the recorder parts along with lutes, shawms and sackbuts. It’s got enough range to be useful in a variety of formats.

4. I just bought one from Suzuki. What a unique instrument! It sounds very “toy-like”, but in a good way. I’ll definitely find some places for this in various recording projects – It’s like having a mini recorder ensemble at your fingertips. I’m really glad that I found this quirky creation.

5. As a single note instrument this melodica has a great pan flute sound., however the quality deteriorates as you approach the higher register. It would have been Ideal if it were designed to go two octaves starting on the A or C rather than the higher F note. The low register sounds fantastic and harmonized 3rds work well. Its a shame that the sweet sounding, well functioning lower register is so limited, especially when so much Andean music is played in Am, Dm and Em.

   The top 5 notes will attract dogs from your entire neighborhood, not just because of the high pitches (which waver in and out of pitch) but the sheer volume. I removed the shell and padded the area around these notes along with the slots near to them with cloth. That took about 10% of the bite out of the highest 6-8 notes and helped them balance with the rest of the instrument.

   I REALLY hope that a lower register version of this instrument will be manufactured and sold. It’s brilliant and has a lot of potential!

   AE