ANNOUNCING (CP): The Freeman Bluebird (D and Eb) ...

[maki]

Good news;
My D whistle arrived. It plays great, sweet, wonderful, and easy for this beginner.
The Mellow Dog now has competition for favorite whistle.

Bad news;
I HAVE to have the Eb now!
(Shoulda just bought both and saved on shipping.)

[Skyclad01]

Still waiting for someone to post a sound clip of one. Though I am tempted to get one even without hearing a sample. Just wont have the money to till next month.

[janmarie]

I received my Bluebird last week and love it. It's tone to me is full, warm and a bit sweet. Just the way I like it!! It's in tune, great tone, shockingly responsive and feels great in my hands. All I can say is WOW and thanks! I know your tweaks are amazing ( I have 3 other of your whistles) but I wonder if the nickel helps takes it over the top?
Janmarie

[maki]

Still waiting for someone to post a sound clip of one. Though I am tempted to get one even without hearing a sample. Just wont have the money to till next month.

Make your own clips, srsly.
You just can't go wrong with the Bluebird.

[JTC111]

Still waiting for someone to post a sound clip of one. Though I am tempted to get one even without hearing a sample. Just wont have the money to till next month.

Make your own clips, srsly.

How does he do that without the whistle? And if his purpose is to listen to the clips to determine whether or not he wants to buy the whistle, making his own clips after the fact would be fairly useless since he'd already know what it sounds like.

[AvienMael]

I've never really found sound clips to be that helpful. Aside from the obvious variety of recording aspects that have already been pointed out in the frequent multitude of postings on this subject, I find that a simple change in playing environment can and will affect the overall sound of most any whistle. So unless the same person is playing it in the same room on the same day as the clip is made...

Honestly, I have never listened to a sound clip of a particular whistle that has influenced my decision on whether or not to buy it. Most written or verbal descriptions of a whistle are sufficient, and one would be just as well off basing their decisions on those. If a whistle is characterized as breathy, pure, responsive, bright, warm, ( I am intentionally omitting "chiffy" here) etc. - then chances are it will be more or less as its maker describes it. The sentiment that two different examples of the same make of whistle are going to sound identical doesn't necessarily hold true, in my experience; and the likelihood that your whistle will sound exactly like the whistle you heard in some sound clip is even less.

If you are thinking to buy a certain whistle, "just because..." then most of this really shouldn't be a consideration at all, because chances are, you ain't gonna play it that much anyhow. It is only when you are after a particular sound or playing characteristic, usually with a particular purpose in mind, that any of this truly matters in the long run.

[Peter Duggan]

I've never really found sound clips to be that helpful. Aside from the obvious variety of recording aspects that have already been pointed out in the frequent multitude of postings on this subject, I find that a simple change in playing environment can and will affect the overall sound of most any whistle. So unless the same person is playing it in the same room on the same day as the clip is made...

Funny, I was just about to post something similar, although more along the lines of they can't tell you how the whistle feels to play or how loud/soft it really is. Having said that, building curiosity about this whole Freeman thing (influenced more by the written word than any clips) has just caused me to order a Mellow Dog set and nickel Bb Generation I didn't really need along with (having recently cut up my old brass Bb to get tube to tweak the bore of something else) a stock nickel Bb for comparison!

[JTC111]

I've never really found sound clips to be that helpful. Aside from the obvious variety of recording aspects that have already been pointed out in the frequent multitude of postings on this subject, I find that a simple change in playing environment can and will affect the overall sound of most any whistle. So unless the same person is playing it in the same room on the same day as the clip is made...

Funny, I was just about to post something similar, although more along the lines of they can't tell you how the whistle feels to play or how loud/soft it really is. Having said that, building curiosity about this whole Freeman thing (influenced more by the written word than any clips) has just caused me to order a Mellow Dog set and nickel Bb Generation I didn't really need along with (having recently cut up my old brass Bb to get tube to tweak the bore of something else) a stock nickel Bb for comparison!

You both make good points but for some of us the clips are very useful, granted they'd have to be done in a fairly neutral environment and it helps if one has the ears to recognize when a recording is being overly affected by the place where it's being recorded or by some kind of processing being applied. I do find it especially helpful to hear what any particular whistle is capable of in the right hands. And since Skyclad01 is waiting on a clip, it's safe to say he finds them useful as well.

I've found the videos on the Kerry site done by Tony Hinnigan and others to be incredibly helpful when I decided to upgrade from the whistles with which I started. I know others have as well. For me, the notion that you can better describe with words the sound of a whistle than you can by hearing it, makes about as much sense as saying one can get a better sense of the Grand Canyon by reading a description than experiencing it in person. True, we can talk about a whistle's back pressure, the ease or lack thereof when playing in the second octave, and a bunch of other topics, but none of the words is going to give me a real representation of how a whistle sounds since the descriptions collected from various people are going to be subjective and will differ because of that. In the end, I'm still going to want to hear that whistle if possible. And while the sound clip may not be a perfect representation, it's a lot less subjective than words if a talented player is providing the clip.

So to each his own. If the two of you don't find clips useful in selecting a whistle, you can choose not to listen to them, but the point of my post was that no one should have to catch shat for wanting something that's perfectly reasonable to ask for.

[Peter Duggan]

You both make good points but for some of us the clips are very useful

So to each his own. If the two of you don't find clips useful in selecting a whistle

Ah, but I do (and have checked out just about all the clips/video reviews on Phil Hardy's and Tony Hinnigan's sites as well as half of YouTube)! So please take my intervention as cautionary note rather than outright dismissal...

but the point of my post was that no one should have to catch shat for wanting something that's perfectly reasonable to ask for.

Absolutely agreed, and I never meant to imply otherwise!

[AvienMael]

Well, I will leave you with this then. In my expereince, I do find Jerry's descriptions to be more accurate representations of his whistles, than most of the sound clips I've heard, and that is why I ordered a Bluebird. It wasn't because I hoped it would sound the way sounds in someone else's hands, it was because his description gave me a pretty good idea of how it will sound in mine.

And I might also remind you that we all post a lot of written descriptions of whistles in this forum, and these decriptions are probably just about the only thing we don't argue pointlessly over.

[JTC111]

Well, I will leave you with this then. In my expereince, I do find Jerry's descriptions to be more accurate representations of his whistles, than most of the sound clips I've heard, and that is why I ordered a Bluebird. It wasn't because I hoped it would sound the way sounds in someone else's hands, it was because his description gave me a pretty good idea of how it will sound in mine.

In a previous post in this thread, you had said, "I find that a simple change in playing environment can and will affect the overall sound of most any whistle. So unless the same person is playing it in the same room on the same day as the clip is made..." Wouldn't that also apply to any written description of the sound? Wouldn't any makers description of a whistle be predicated on the acoustic properties and the room in which he is listening, therefore saddling the written description with the same limitations as an audio clip?

[Jerry Freeman]

I'm still working on getting some sound clips together. This week was taken by some personal stuff that needed attending to, but hopefully in the next few days we can get something done.

Best wishes,
Jerry

[JTC111]

I'm still working on getting some sound clips together. This week was taken by some personal stuff that needed attending to, but hopefully in the next few days we can get something done.

Best wishes,
Jerry

That's good news.

Hey, I've been wondering for a while now... what's the significance of the mouse?

[Jerry Freeman]

You can do a search on posts containing "Ralph" with "Jerry Freeman" as the author and get most of the story. There's much more than I can tell in a single answer. In short, Freeman Pennywhistles was co-founded by a mouse.

Best wishes,
Jerry

[Steve Bliven]

There's much more than I can tell in a single answer. In short, Freeman Pennywhistles was co-founded by a mouse.

But I thought it was a whale....

Best wishes.

Steve