My chosen instrument is the recorder. Due to the physics of the instrument, it could not be made louder. The new fangled transverse flute could and by 1740 or so, the recorder ceased to exist in art music. There have been a few pieces written for recorder in the late 1900's, mainly on commission from modern recorder players who owe their artistic lives to the revival of baroque period instrument performances.

To give you an idea of the relative power of various instruments, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #2 of 1721 uses solo recorder, oboe, violin and trumpet! and a chamber orchestra, and #4 uses two recorder and violin. But as early as 1728, Vivaldi mutes the strings in the recorder concerto RV442, published as a flute concerto Op10 #5, RV434.

As Dave says about banjos, give a listen to recorders, baroque flutes ( the same basic sound persisted up to Beethoven's time) and modern flutes.

Bob