I have a couple of inexpensive recorders I play around on, and my daughter has a few primitive flutes. I'll take the recorder sound anyday.

It's also a shame that the standard pitch has risen through the years. The mellower sound of previous centuries was more pleasant to listen to.

Adding to my banjo comments, early banjos were typically tuned to around A or E (depending on which type of tuning pattern was prefered) while modern banjos are tuned higher to C or G.

I have an old fiddle built around 1800 that has been in my family since before the Civil War. It's neck is about a half inch shorter than modern fiddles. It was designed, like Strads, to be pitched to a lower pitch (I'm thinking around 415Hz vs today's 450Hz, but I'm going from memory and could be off). My old fiddle sounds it's best when tuned with gut strings designed for lower pitch and tuned that way. Unfortunately, nobody I know in this area play in that tuning, so long ago I resigned myself to todays standard pitch. However, I refuse to put a longer neck on the instrument to optimise for higher pitch. It sounds good as is but has a darker tone than what you normally hear. I like it!

Dave