Whistle tour: The Oz Whistle

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 3:29 pm

I received the Oz D today. I noticed immediately it resembled the WW in tone and playability. I love my WW, preferring to learn new tunes on it and to grab it most when playing at home... Its sound is my favorite on high D wihistles... or at least it was... I haven't put the OZ down since I got my hands on it, except for this moment to acknowledge its arrival and for one tune on my Water Weasel to compare it to.

I really like it so far. Easy to play, easy to control (well... as much as I am able to control any whistle

) and sweet sounding. Though louder in the upper second ocatve, it is not shrill... neither kids, hubby nor cats left the room.

I will give it the session try-out Monday night, and write more later. The queue of friends and neighbors are already lining up to try it.

Aanvil · Post by **Aanvil** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 4:02 pm

WEEEE! I'm next!

(Make sure you swab that baby out.

)

Mitch · Post by **Mitch** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 8:30 pm

Hi All,

An update on the tour.

Firstly - Aanvil - have you got the whistle yet?

Nextly - As promised, here's a few pics of the tunable Oz Whistle. My range-name for these cylindrical jobbies is "Vambrace" - additional keys will be added as I develop my workshop - all takes time

The influences in the design are obvious - Although similar in many respects to whistles made by Paul Busman, Chris Abell, Greg Mahan and others (for whom I have the greatest respect and admiration) the voicings and dimensions are my own and have taken quite some time to arrive at. Within those parrameters I can adjust voicing and characteristics such as volume, air requirement and tone on request.

It has taken me a lot longer than anticipated to get my workshop ready to be able to produce this whistle, but things seem to be working well at last.

Here's the beastie - African Blackwood with sterling silver trim and a brass tuning slide. I'll be doing these in African blackwood or Gidgey as a standard - I can do them in other woods and metals on request with some limitations. Voicing will be standard unless other voicing is requested - standard is medium volume, sweet sound (somewhere between "pure" and "reedy"). The example shown is on the "pure" side.

Head and beak profile.

The tuning slide is brass. the top ferrule has a serial number on the back while the lower ferrule shows the key of the body.

In this example, I have made the fipple assembly in delrin with sterling silver outer-ring. The assembly is pinned to the head-tube by 3 silver rivets and glued. This configuration is suitable for those who prefer not to have wood in contact with their lips - a requestable feature - the standard model has the wood continuous through the beak with no need for the additional pins.

Here are some sound samples played by Paddy O'Connor, "Cliffs of Moher" followed by "Planxty Irwin". Recording was via an AKG D 3800 dynamic cardioid microphone directly into Cool Edit Pro 2 via M-Audio Firewire Solo with no FX or filters:

http://www.ozwhistles.com/files/CliffsofMoher.mp3
http://www.ozwhistles.com/files/PlanxtyIrwin.mp3

Once I get ahead of the current order book, I'll get an additional tour going.

Inquiries are welcome.

Steamwalker · Post by **Steamwalker** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 8:36 pm

Ooooo, I want one! Oh, and be sure to add me on any future tour.

Tommy · Post by **Tommy** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 8:47 pm

Very fine whistle Mitch.

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:08 pm

The tour whistle is on its way to Aanvil... sorry about the delay... part circumstance, part not wanting to let it go...

That new one is just plain drop dead gorgeous!!!! the detail on the silver is very nice indeed. I am drooling.

PhilO · Post by **PhilO** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:13 pm

Ok, Mitch, that's just plain gorgeous! That's the first stirring of WHOA I've had in quite some time...

Philo

PhilO · Post by **PhilO** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:15 pm

Uh, Mitch, you need to send me one of those right now so I can get up to speed with it to show around at the upcoming (July 29) NE Gathering.

Philo

Aanvil · Post by **Aanvil** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:51 am

I haven't got it yet but Annie told me it has been sent.

To arrive well humidified by Annie's parting tears no doubt.

I'll let you all know when it shows up.

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 10:32 am

PhilO wrote:Uh, Mitch, you need to send me one of those right now so I can get up to speed with it to show around at the upcoming (July 29) NE Gathering.

Philo

Yeah, send him one pronto! I want to play with it myself at the Gathering.

Very beautiful work, Mitch. I'm much impressed.

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:48 am

TOUR! TOUR! Please!!

Mitch · Post by **Mitch** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 1:38 am

Hi All,

With old #7 winging its way from Aanvil to Bonequint I can now announce that Vambrace tunable #7701 (delrin/sterling) is on its way to PhilO to kick-off the tunable tour.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get it there in time for the Northeast Gathering, but as they say ... erm .. better something than .. something or other ...

Since PhilO has a claim on this one (if he likes it) it will tour only 6 stops and go back to Phil. By that time I can inject another one into the tour to keep things rolling

Here's a few pics of the culprit:

Having the pinned-mod on a delrin whistle is something of a redundancy, but it was fun to do

Tunable tour names so far are:

PhilO
Aanvil

Next?

(edited to say - I have one ready for a tour of Australia/New Zealand - please PM if interested)

Steamwalker · Post by **Steamwalker** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:07 am

Tommy · Post by **Tommy** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:43 am

Mitch wrote:Hi All,

With old #7 winging its way from Aanvil to Bonequint I can now announce that Vambrace tunable #7701 (delrin/sterling) is on its way to PhilO to kick-off the tunable tour.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get it there in time for the Northeast Gathering, but as they say ... erm .. better something than .. something or other ...

Since PhilO has a claim on this one (if he likes it) it will tour only 6 stops and go back to Phil. By that time I can inject another one into the tour to keep things rolling

Here's a few pics of the culprit:

Having the pinned-mod on a delrin whistle is something of a redundancy, but it was fun to do

Tunable tour names so far are:

PhilO
Aanvil

Next?

(edited to say - I have one ready for a tour of Australia/New Zealand - please PM if interested)

Tommy

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:26 am

One comes to me... it stays with me. You are warned.

Oh my... did I say that?... my covetous side has really been getting the better of me lately...