CP: Ronaldo Reyburn Low D Whistle Tour

[Ted]

The Standard is a later version than the model Pancelticpiper reviewed. Ronaldo redesigned his head for a stronger low end, based on reviewing the MK. It retains the soaring, easily obtained second octave of his previous design, with a fuller and louder bottom octave which is better in balance between the two octaves. It is easier to control than my Copeland and plays with nearly the same back-pressure as the MK. I find it very intuitive to play. The tone is rounder, warmer and fuller than the MK. I simply cannot understand the negative reviews it got at first (actually the second and third reviews). To me, it plays more easily than my MK or Overton. How that qualifies it as "harder than most" to drive is baffling to me. I don't find the tone dirty or gritty at all. It doesn't respond as well played softly, but it is certainly no harder to play than the MK or a Goldie medium blower, nor do these whistles respond well to a light breath and are considered as among the best made. It is a medium blower.

I just got a "big head" model as well. It has a bit more volume and has a bit more "edge" to the tone. Although it is louder than the standard model by a small amount, I find the standard model's clarity of tone is well heard in a larger session. There may not be enough of a difference between the two to justify me keeping the big-head model, but if I only had the big head model I would be happy to play it. If anyone wants to try my big head model, I would be happy to oblige. The one I have is "Itrad" tuned and has in-line holes. An ET body is available from Ronaldo for $40, plus postage. PM me if you are curious about my big head low D.

[stanton135]

Thanks, I stand corrected.

[Mr.Nate]

Hello everyone!

The Reyburn whistle tour is now in Colorado Springs. Tommy posted the whistles to me and they arrived on Monday.

So far I favor the regular low D over the tight voice. The regular model has a fuller sound and plays really well all the way to the highest note.

I wear a medium glove size and I don't have any problems with the finger spacing or hole size. The first day was the learning curve but each day it gets easier to play.

Thanks Ronaldo!

[Ted]

What is happening with this tour? The last complete review was over 6 weeks ago. The whistles have been through at least 3 sets of hands since then and we have only gotten initial impressions and no comprehensive reviews from any of them. It is great that we get the opportunity to try out whistles from makers. The cost to participants is minimal, including postage to the next participant and a review of your impressions after having them in your hands for a week or so. The makers deserve the reviews, positive or negative, as do we, the readers of the reviews. If you are a participant, please post a timely review. It is the least you can do for the opportunity to spend time with the whistle(s). That is the price we all should pay if we are participants in a tour.

[Reyburnwhistles]

Thank you Ted for your comments and yes we all deserve to read the participants comments about the whistles and in a timely manner.

Ronaldo

[Mr.Nate]

Last week I sent the Reyburn whistle tour to Trill in Las Vegas. He received them on July 25, 2013.

I apologize Ronaldo for not writing a more extensive review. I generally play a Reyburn narrow bore whistle 98% of the time and don't have very much experience with high end low D's!

In this case I will refer to the avid low D players to detail their experience. I am a Connoisseur of high D whistles and I have found the Reyburn narrow bore whistle to be my favorite! I had a vast collection of high end whistles and sold them all except the Reyburn narrow bore. That would include makers like Copeland, Sindt, O'Riordan, Rose, and many others.

A little off topic here but I really like Ronaldo's whistles. Ronaldo is a great person to work with and his whistles are well worth the asking price. I appreciate his passion for whistle making and his commitment to excellence.

Thanks again Ronaldo!

Respectfully,

Nate

[trill]

Greetings,

Here are my impressions of the Standard Voice (SV) and Tight Voice (TV) Low D whistles by Reyburn currently on tour.

Backpressure
There's lots of it. More than any other Low D I've played. This much backpressure was totally new for me. But, it's my new favorite feature. See below . . .

Low Flow
A companion to high backpressure is low airflow. The flow may be low, but there's plenty of energy for sound production. These fipples are remarkably efficient flow-to-sound transmogrifiers. There's plenty of volume in both SV and TV. A little more in SV. A little less in TV.

"Forever" Fipples
Because of the low flow consumption, you can play lengthy passages without breathpoints. Especially the TV. With the TV, it felt like I was "playing forever" between breathpoints. Madre de Dios !

Forgiving Fipples
Breathwise, these low D's were the easiest to play of all the low Ds I've tried. With many Low Ds, a cold-start on the bell note is often a tricky affair, requiring careful control of the breath and it's onset. Certainly, such control is a good skill for a whistler. But these fipples simply aren't that finnicky. Just give'r a good push, and she plays !

Going a little further, on many low D, the wind requirements in the second octave are wayyy higher than in the first, especially above G (think gallons per minute). With these Reyburns, the *pressure requirement* goes up, but the flow rate doesn't change nearly as much.

Sound
This subject is rather subjective. I'll just say they sounded right fine to me. Also, some low D's can get screechy in the 2nd octave. None of that here. These whistles were a joy to play.

Toneholes
My hands are a little on the small side. With piper's grip, both of these whistles were immediately accessible. I found the TV a little easier to play. I think the holes are a weee bit smaller, making them easier to cover reliably.

Whistle-making Know-how
As best as I can tell, the differences between the SV and TV versions consist of a whole bunch of very subtle dimensional changes. What is remarkable to me is that even though the TV is quieter and takes less air, the timbre is still very much a blood-relative to the SV. To me, these whistles are tour-de-force of whistle-making know-how.

Craftsmanship+Materials
These are finely crafted instruments. The choice of brass for the barrel gives them a little more immunity to wear+tear than other materials. Note though, the brass is heavy. These whistles are the heaviest I've played. My kitchen scale says 325g. Using a knee-rest makes this a non-issue.

Many thanks, Ronaldo, for putting your whistles on tour ! And of course, thanks, retired for organizing it all !

trill

[pancelticpiper]

I just want to chime in and say that Ted really knows his way around whistles (and pipes) and knows what he's talking about.

His personal MK was the best MK I'd ever played, heck it was the best Low Whistle I'd ever played, and I thought I had won the lottery when he said he would sell it to me. I play that thing every day and I love it. (Playing Ted's MK is what made me switch from a Burke Low D to an MK.)

Why did he let that wonderful MK go? Because he got his hands on something he liked better, a Reyburn! That means a lot to me.

The only thing holding me back from a Reyburn is the weight.

[maki]

I'm next up on the whistle tour.
Christmas comes early this year!

[Ted]

Panceltic, did you ever play a clarinet? A lot more weight there than a Reyburn low D. Never saw a clarinetist who used a neck strap. I have gotten used to the weight and it now feels "right" to me. Can play for hours without fatigue.

[pancelticpiper]

Panceltic, did you ever play a clarinet? A lot more weight there than a Reyburn low D. Never saw a clarinetist who used a neck strap.

Quite true, though clarinets do have a built-in thumbrest to help support the weight. A pair of thumbrests might do the trick, distribute the weight. Without thumbrest or strap, sheer hand tension is the only thing supporting a Low Whistle, the very thing I need to avoid.

I had a "Chieftan Gold" (solid brass) Low Whistle for a while and I couldn't handle the hand tension the weight caused. I bought a BariSax strap which has a plastic clip that I can hook to the bottom of a Low Whistle; this works well for me, and I would have to do the same for a Reyburn.

[Tommy]

The machine work on both whistles is excellent. No mill scratches. or extra material hanging on.

Both whistles play excellent. The "Standard voice'' is great for playing airs or other slower tunes. It will play a polka but the response/pop/chiff is a little slow. Given that chiff is the instant a note reaches that note. Both whistles have good personality in there voice and not much change between octaves. Sort of a pleasant growl.

The ''Tight voice'' was a little quicker with response/pop/chiff. The blade is visibly closer to the wind way exit than on the ''Standard'', and this is what gives it faster response/pop/chiff. For a person that wants a faster low D I think the "Tight voice'' still has room to move the blade and ramp closer. But then there would be those that could not prevent octave jumping to soon.

The construction is interesting in several good features. Delrin is a great choice for the head. Looks good when machined properly, and resists moisture. Requires less warm up time. Brass tone tubes look great with a bare shine no coating shine, or with a curdy patina. The fipple plug has the longest wings/stabilizer tabs I have seen. Obviously they make a good contribution to the voice of the ''Reyburn Whistles''. There are rings at both the D and E to give strength in the low octave.

When playing these whistles I did not find any pressure backing up through through the wind way. The wind way hight is adequate to prevent clogging and to allow some resistance for comfortable breathing while playing.

[stanton135]

A bit earlier in this thread I mentioned that, having tried the Reyburn standard low D and the tight-voiced, now I'd like to sample the session model as well.

Well, fellow forumite Ted just so happened to have a session model Reyburn low D that he was considering selling, and he very kindly lent it to me so that I could form my opinions and compare it to the other models that I've already reviewed. Ask and ye shall receive! Thanks, Ted.

I've recorded a sound sample of this whistle, playing the same tunes as I recorded on the other Reyburns, so that you can hear the difference. The files can be found at: https://www.box.com/s/h0mga65i0tebv9fswch6

Visually, this whistle looks very similar to the Reyburn standard. The delrin mouthpiece is wider and thicker everywhere except right where you put your mouth on it, where it has been turned to a smaller, more comfortable diameter. Presumably this provides the same sort of shielding/support that the Copeland or Bracker box ears do, strengthening the low range of the instrument. As I don't have the standard model on hand at this time, I can't directly compare the tone hole layout, but it looks and feels very similar. Interestingly, this session model has a different perturbation in the bore. This one has a longer perturbation (maybe around 1/2") of about the usual thickness just south of the B3 hole. There is no perturbation just at the bell, as I had found with the other models.

Tone and response
The first impression I got when I first picked it up and started playing was, "Whoa. This whistle means business." The tone is identifiably Reyburn, but it's louder and more aggressive. The same chiff is there, maybe a bit more, and there's certainly more backpressure. Whereas the standard Reyburn has a bit less backpressure than my MK pro, this session Reyburn has a bit more. I didn't notice it requiring more air, as in lungfuls per measure, to play than the standard.

All the notes in the second octave, including the E and F#, needed a greater push than I'm used to in order to keep them cleanly in the second octave. For the first few minutes of playing, I was getting mellow low octave notes, and harsh second octaves notes that were really in between octaves. Eventually I realized that I was blowing every note across the register too softly. The trick, I realized, is to determine the amount of pressure needed to just barely get the second octave to sound cleanly, and then to blow the lower octave hard enough to match the second octave's scale. Every time since then that I've picked up the whistle, this has gotten easier and more intuitive. It's a highly audible instrument with decent backpressure and good volume balance across the range.

In terms of tuning, the scale as built into the instrument is almost exactly the same as on the standard Reyburn. They are both tuned to just intonation, meaning that the F#, B, and C# are going to register flat on a tuner. Once you get the hang of how the whole whistle needs to be blown, the only notes that require any conscious deviation from that curve are the C#, which needs to be blown up, and the cross-fingered C natural, which can be blown sharp if you blow it as hard as the low B.

However, a real difference between this session whistle and the standard in terms of tuning is the amount of leeway you get, the amount you can blow a note sharp or flat of its default pitch. As this model's first octave needs to be blown very strongly, almost to the breaking point, for it to be up to pitch with the second octave, there's really very little leeway for blowing the low B, which is flat of ET, up to match a tuner, accordion, guitar, or banjo. The same is true of the low C#. The second octave notes have it the opposite: they can easily be blown a bit sharp, but underblowing them destabilizes the note and can cause it to drop the octave. As I mentioned before, I personally would order the ET tube.

This instrument responds to cross-fingerings and half-holing almost the same as the standard Reyburn. My MK is significantly more responsive to cross-fingerings than any of the Reyburn models, and I believe it's partly because the MK's holes are smaller and partly because the MK's tube wall is roughly twice as thick. The Reyburn's cross-fingered G#s, like on most whistles, are too sharp. XOX XXX for low Bb is just about right. OXX OOO, with a dip in breath pressure, works for low C natural, but OXX XOX is easier to keep in tune. XOX OOO for high Bb and OXO XXX for high C natural are sharp. OXO OOO for high C is closer in pitch, but the tone isn't as stable. OOO OOO and OOO XXX both work for high C#. /XX OOO is the only fingering I found that worked for 3rd octave D, though it's still a bit sharp. XXO XXO for 3rd octave E works; XX/ XXO can bring it down to pitch. Really, though, this instrument's highest register is not its forte. It sounds harsh and strained and tends to sharpness beyond high A.

Summing up, I think that this Reyburn session whistle would work admirably in the environment for which it was designed—a noisy session where you need to be heard. Earlier in this thread, when comparing the tight-voiced Reyburn to the standard, I said that the tight-voiced version had an easy, beautiful second octave but that the low notes were lacking something. With this session whistle I've come to the opposite conclusion: the lowest notes are loud and powerful, but the higher range is the tradeoff. I have to conclude that Ronaldo made the correct decisions when he designed his standard version. It ought to be called the Reyburn standard, IMHO, because it's the best set of compromises—and an exemplary low whistle, for playing in session or at home.

Thanks again for the chance to try Ronaldo's fine work!

[maki]

My review.
I'll preface this this a disclaimer.
I'm still pretty new at whistles, two plus years on high whistles and 6 months or so on lows.
Previous experts have given great reviews on all of the technical particulars, and since
I'm weak in that area I'll give that a pass. My focus will be the impressions of a beginner.

Reyburn’s whistles immediately struck me as first quality instruments.
Fit, finish, heft, and workmanship were all great. LOVE the solid brass tube!
I started to play and absolutely couldn't stop.
To the great consternation of my wife I was at these whistles for hours on the first day.
These whistles felt as if they played themselves.
They didn't need any warm up, they never clogged on me, they just played and played.
At one point my wife gave me a cross look and said, "You're going to buy another low whistle, aren't you." Well, there really was no point in denial.
I did seem to prefer the regular to the tight voiced model.
In the week I had these I probably spent more time playing on them than I had in the last few
months on my famous maker low d.
For me, they just clicked.
Brilliant whistles, just brilliant.
Thank you Renaldo for sending them on tour.

[Derek Blackwell]

First let me say my main whistles are low G and A (as well as high C). I've never been entirely comfortable playing any low D (until now). These have always seemed too difficult to control to play fast tunes on - lots of fun for slow airs though.

Compared to other low Ds I've owned (Burke, Goldie, Howard) I'd say Reyburn Standard wins hands down for playability. By that I mean I find it quite easy to produce a pleasant, useful tone across the entire range of the instrument, and to play at a reasonably good clip. I like a bit of backpressure, so it feels natural to me to lean into the notes and put a certain amount of air into the instrument, but not too much. The Reyburn Standard has struck the balance beautifully. With the others, I found it took too much breath on the higher range to the point where it was impractical to play above high G, and that I had to tiptoe so carefully on the lowest notes to avoid breaking that it just wasn't enjoyable for me (although I have to give Burke an honorable mention for beautiful lows). With the Reyburn I can relax and play the way that feels natural to me.

Sadly, I'm finding the weight of the Reyburn to be challenge for long periods. Elsewhere on C&F I've seen a saxophone style strap or knee rest suggested. I'd suggest a thumb rest - It seems to be a similar weight to the clarinet I played when I was a kid, and a thumb rest worked ok for me then. Either that or... how about a whistle made of a lighter material? Having talked with Ronaldo (a super nice guy) I know he's not keen on the idea of making whistles of anything but brass - so that will probably remain a dream, ah well....

All other things being equal I would consider trying to come up with a solution for the weight, however I think the Reyburn Low D is not for me since the low E note is noticeably quiet. That's a common bane of many whistles, as has been noted on C&F many times, but to my ear it's more pronounced (on this Reyburn anyway) than some other whistles I've played. For those who often play in major keys, this is probably less of a big deal than it is for me - I'm one of those odd people who plays primarily in minor keys, so the low E is often my point of return. I'm finding it painful not to have just a bit more oomph on that note.

The low E note is in much better proportion on the tight voiced model (thanks so much for including it Ronaldo) however the three lowest notes are too quiet for my taste. This whistle is also a pleasure to play, especially in the mid and high range, and is quieter and somewhat sweeter sounding. Although the highs are wonderful and bit easier to play, I don't find enough of a sonic or playability advantage over the Standard, which also rocks on the highs.

Both whistles are tuned for a traditional flatish 3rd (F sharp), flatish 6th (B) and flatish 7th (C sharp), which sound wonderful for certain traditional music, especially in D major. Were I to order a Reyburn, I would go for an equal tempered instrument, which Ronaldo provides on request, but again, that's because I play mostly in E and B minor, for which the flat C sharp sounds wonky to my ear. Many of you might like the trad tuning instead.

Overall I'm very impressed, and will likely consider Reyburn whistles in higher keys due to the weight factor, but evidently some of you haven't found the low D to be too heavy so I hope to hear this wonderful sounding instrument grow in popularity.