Tell us something.: I play high and low whistle with Traditional Irish Music being my focus of interest. I love Irish music and consider it as a direct connection to my Irish heritage. I enjoy participation in whistle tours, chatting with other players, and learning much from the many talented folks that frequent C & F.
Steve Bliven wrote:
That's a far better test than the wife-in-the-other-room method I used. I just wasn't sure whether what I was hearing while playing had any relation to what others would hear.
Best wishes.
Steve Bliven
Seems like Steve might have developed a new piece of audio technology for the determination of accurate measurement of the projected volume of a whistle using its comparative level as measured relative to a known standard (that of one's spouse) within the same abient environment. Maybe he could call it Bliven's Wife-ometer!
I know that wouldn't fly in my castle.
Good Luck Steve,
Cayden
"TEAM TRAD" Pro Staff
Official Life Member of DUBLIN DUCK DYNASTY
"Joanie Madden, Mary Bergin, and Andrea Corr, each a Whistle Goddess in her own right"!
Tell us something.: I play high and low whistle with Traditional Irish Music being my focus of interest. I love Irish music and consider it as a direct connection to my Irish heritage. I enjoy participation in whistle tours, chatting with other players, and learning much from the many talented folks that frequent C & F.
"TEAM TRAD" Pro Staff
Official Life Member of DUBLIN DUCK DYNASTY
"Joanie Madden, Mary Bergin, and Andrea Corr, each a Whistle Goddess in her own right"!
MY turn ! - just got the whistles and fortunately they were already at room temperature so here goes ------- well I've been playing the low F for awhile now and WOW - it's effortless to play - I was immediately comfortable with no adjustment / learning necessary. Lately I've been jumping around from low d to low d and I know it's set me back with the constant adjusting - no such thing with this F - right from the start I'm playing as well as I've ever played. The air requirement and back pressure are just right for me. The holes seal really well for me. I have zero problems playing this whistle. The tone of the second octave is (for me ) superb, the first octave tone is ok. The bell note is solid and I'm having NO problem with condensation - that's been a big problem for me with aluminum low D whistles. I'm delighted with this whistle - I've already got the wife building barricades around the house - you'll never get this one back ! If the low D is this good I'm leaving the country tonight !
Feadoggie - I can feel you watching me ! OK - so now the low D - after commenting on the F above I realize just about everything in the reviews is subjective, and that we're really commenting on how the whistles suit us, for instance Feadoggie and Pat, both experienced, have different opinions of the tone of these whistles. Even tuning - I've seen that , depending on how tired or energetic I am, my whistle will appear to be tuned a little differently, and I'm now of the belief that different people even blow the same whistle differently from note to note. (talk about opening a can of worms) Anyway - the D - again a very playable instrument (for me) easy to hit every note, good seal on the holes, fluid from octave to octave, no problem - immediate adjustment. Regarding the tone - I found it to maybe be a little muffled, but I usually play a Reviol and that is a tone monster that requires an awful lot of air. In my opinion these are both excellent whistles, and I seem to be drawn more to the F.
Tell us something.: I play high and low whistle with Traditional Irish Music being my focus of interest. I love Irish music and consider it as a direct connection to my Irish heritage. I enjoy participation in whistle tours, chatting with other players, and learning much from the many talented folks that frequent C & F.
retired wrote:If the low D is this good I'm leaving the country tonight !
Feadoggie wrote:It's no matter if you leave the country, retired, just be sure to send the whistles along to the next tourist before you leave.
He'd have to get past Cayden first anyway....
Best wishes.
Steve
And I spent a full career chasing armed men, and I loved it, and they weren't armed with whistles. Trust me "Retired", the life of a whistle fugitive is not pretty!
Cayden
"TEAM TRAD" Pro Staff
Official Life Member of DUBLIN DUCK DYNASTY
"Joanie Madden, Mary Bergin, and Andrea Corr, each a Whistle Goddess in her own right"!
As expected, the workmanship is beyond scrutiny. Others have spoken about this earlier and the pictures above speak for the workmanship.
As a NAF flute player and a novice Irish flute player, I felt that the whitles have a NAF quality. Listen to the parting glass. I think that is NAF like. Breathy as some others have stated. I found the discussion in the flute forum that Geoffrey discussed was very true concerning bore and bore to length for NAF.
I also think that these whistles can be Irish sounding. I find that I had to push to get to the second register.
Thanks for the opportunity to be on the tour. I like my teacher liked the F better than the D. He is playing in the clips and not me by the way. I am not that good yet.
Whistles arrived today and I'll get to them tomorrow. They are truly lovely, and the lightest (in weight) whistles (given the key) I can recall holding. More when I play them.
OK, the whistles will go out this afternoon (enjoy Tommy). Someone wrote about how subjective our opinions are. I agree. So, take these comments with a grain of salt:
1) For me the sound was very breathy. I agree with the writer who mentioned NAF similarities. My wife used the purjoritive term "tubby." I think that is a bit strong. Breathy yes, almost to the point of windy but not tubby. The F less so than the D
2) Both whistles seemed to me to take more air than they should. As a trumpet player I'm used to putting out lots of air, but I'm also used to some resistance. There doesn't seem to be much with these whistles and for me that makes difficulties. Long phrases were hard to complete. I played the same thing on these instruments (all low D) Copeland, MK, Ralph Sweet Onyx, a cheap Kerry whistle (I've forgotten the model) a Susato and the Ellis whistles. Only the Ellis caused the issue. I suspect that if this issue is addressed the breathy sound will get better too and the result will be very fine indeed. Both these issues deal with focusing the sound.
3) Overall volume seemed medium to soft.
4) I noticed that covering the lower three holes on the lo D was a problem for me. I don't have that problem often on the other instruments (except for the Copeland which has one really huge hole on the middle finger of the lower hand). I got to wondering if the issue might just be that the instruments are less accepting of sloppy finger placement than some of the others. Hmmm... One possible solution, since you have the relatively thick side walls of wood, might be to undercut the holes, making the surface hole smaller and easier to cover. Of course that adjusts tuning and other things too. Still perhaps a useful thought.
5) Intonation was extremely good. I was really aware of the accuracy of the pitches. I didn't check with anything electronic but whatever tuning scheme was used my ears liked it a good deal. I would miss having a tuning slid though. Just too much pitch shift when playing with folks not to have that.
6) Responsiveness on the F instrument was "OK" but on the D was less so. Playing jigs and reels at speed was a problem on the D. That might be a matter of getting used to the way the instrument blows though, and not a weakness of the instrument.
7) The beak and mouthpiece in general was not comfortable for me. I'm not sure how to describe the discomfort, but it has something to do with the top to bottom size of the beak and the way it fits into the mouth. I think a look at some of the other models out there could quickly solve this issue. I'm not very fussy about this, and everything from the Kerry to the MK to the Susato feels OK, but something bothers me about the Ellis ones. I wish I could speak in a more useful way...
8 Upper octave seemed to need a bit of a push, but that is a matter of getting used to the instrument. It is also related to the fact that I play mostly conical bore instruments where what you need to do in the upper octave is quite different.
9) I did not play for long enough periods to encounter any blockage issues.
I didn't add any clips because I think the clips already out here are excellent examples and mine would add nothing of usefulness.
All this sounds quite critical and as though I thought these were terrible instruments. That is not the case. I think they are an excellent start. The quality of the workmanship is wonderful, and care is evident is every aspect of the design and manufacture. I look forward to some adjustments as Geoffrey goes on developing the instrument and I expect that he'll end up with a real winner.
