Jon Swayne Low D Whistle in boxwood

[jemtheflute]

Well, I've had it a couple of months now, still playing it in, and it is changing/I'm learning better how to handle it. I still wonder whether I'll have to talk to the maker about modifying the voicing a little, but it is clear to me that would be pointless at this stage. I have also made a clip-on thumb rest for it which I'm finding makes it much more secure in my hands and relieves a small amount of hand strain I was experiencing when playing it.

Here's a new clip: Three Jigs

....and here's the one I made when it was still quite newly arrived and linked in my "The new blonde in my life" thread - dunno if any change is apparent...... : The King Street Waltz(Mazurka).

All comments/feedback welcome.

[Cayden]

Nice work on the jigs. Overall, I think the voicing on the whistle is quite nice.

Cayden

[Peter Duggan]

Terrific sound, Jem... with (dare I say it?) elements of recorder and flute (both instruments I love!) and a flute-like ability to really lean into the notes.

[jemtheflute]

Terrific sound, Jem... with (dare I say it?) elements of recorder and flute (both instruments I love!) and a flute-like ability to really lean into the notes.

Thanks Peter. Yes, at least at the moment there is an element of its tone which is reminiscent of recorder tone, I agree (not true of my Swayne high D at all, IMO), though it is far more powerful in the low register (for which it is purposely design-optimised) than any recorder - hence the lean-ability and "cosmic drainpipe" flute-like element. An older Swayne blackwood low D of my acquaintance (made some 20 years ago, I believe) has a slightly narrower bore and a tone more like that of other low whistles as well as being easier in the upper 2nd 8ve, and while more powerful than most, isn't this powerful - Jon has changed his design over the years, it would seem. But my new one is definitely changing with time and use (it's boxwood!), so we'll see - I'm hoping it will end up about half way between how it is now and how my friend's older one is - a bit cleaner and sweeter and whistlier and easier between 8ves without too much loss of ooomph!

[Loren]

"Sounds like a recorder" is exactly what I thought when I watched your original YouTube video and I should know, lol. Surprised me really, as I'd heard from other owners who said their Swayne low d's didn't sound recorderish.

[jemtheflute]

Yup, fair comment. And certainly my friend's older one, as I said, fits with that. If I'm perfectly honest, at the moment although it is lovely, it isn't quite what I had ideally hoped for (an 8vo basso version of my high D) and, if come the new year it hasn't played in to be closer to that, I will take it to Jon and discuss the voicing with him.

Who knows, if I lived a bit more conveniently close to Jon, I might have been able to go try out what stock he had and make my own choice...... he offered me box or mopane, and I don't know how many of each he had in stock. That would of course be ideal and preferable to one-shot, get what you get mail order.

What I can say is that, sound character notwithstanding, the response is very different from any recorder I have ever tried - including some half decent ones, though not in this price bracket or Loren's craft level. It plays like a whistle, as I think my clips show.

[cboody]

I've played lots of recorder, everything from plastic models through Von Huene (sp) super models and the Dream model. None of them sound remotely like the Swayne whistle to me. It sounds to me like a whistle with lots of the low register edge one often hears in good Irish flute players. And, it sounds problematical in the high A and up range. It is hard to say whether that is the player or the instrument.

All that said though it is an absolutely grand sound and grand playing! Wonderful to be able to get that low register sound to punch out that way.

He doesn't seem to have a web site. Is there a way to find out more information?

[jemtheflute]

cboody - thanks for your comments, with which I mostly concur - I only differ in that I do see what folk mean who think it has an aspect of a recordery sound. It is indeed "problematical" in the upper 2nd 8ve - Jon actually mentions this in his accompanying sheet of instructions, recommending using xoo xxx for high B if it is needed to sound more softly and clearly - which does in fact work well, but isn't too handy in fast tunes. It is an accepted and acknowledged (by JS) consequence of the deliberate low register optimisation which is so successful. It's a trade off - you can't have a good high end with the same set-up of bore and voicing. Most (actually as opposed to allegedly good!) whistles of any design and intended playing style are more balanced across a 2 8ve range, and consequently can't have as much bottom. So, it is definitely the instrument, though the player may not yet be getting the best from it.

Even Swayne's high whistles have this bias, but it is less extreme in a smaller instrument and the full 2 8ves are fully usable. Nonetheless, my high D by him does not go usably well into the 3rd 8ve as many high Ds do - it has to be pushed too hard and is too shrill. If, for the odd tune, I want (I do sometimes!) to use 3rd 8ve E, F#, G on a high whistle I revert to my old Generation which is quite sweet there.

Anyway, at the moment my Swayne low D isn't as suitable as I'd like for slow airs, for example, where I would ideally like it to be sweeter and easier up to the 2nd 8ve B, and I'd also like it to do slurred octaves through the scale more readily than it does. But, as I keep saying, it is new and changing and I am also adjusting to playing it optimally - various tiny refinements of blowing technique need to become automatic/unthought, and as they do it will sound more as I want it. It also demands very clean fingering transitions (a good thing!). For moderate to fast tunes falling within the average tessitura of trad music it works very well indeed and in a large session it holds its own as well as a flute. It's not easy, but I'm enjoying it!

Re: contact info etc. No. Jon has no website for his instrument making and hasn't ever done so. He doesn't need one - I think he is fully occupied without needing the extra work of running one. This YT video interview with him is of interest. His contact details can readily be found online by an appropriate web-search,e.g.. Try searching on "Jon Swayne pipes maker contact" for plenty more info about him.

Edited to add:
Jon concentrates on his various bagpipe models and doesn't make very many whistles, especially the low ones, which are dependent on availability of suitable timber amongst other things. He seems to make them in small batches and had obviously made a few earlier this year. His current list price for the low D is £650 GBP before carriage (at cost) and of course the chance of having to pay import duties if it's a foreign purchase outside the EU. I have no idea if he now has any left. He offered me the choice of Box or Mopane, so there was at least one Mopane one in stock when I bought this one! I'd waited quite a few years, not exactly on a formal waiting list but intent/interest expressed when I bought my high D (for which I also waited as I enquired at a time when he wasn't making any at all!), and then saw on Facebook that someone else had just acquired one, so I jumped in quick!

SFAIK they aren't available retail anywhere unless you are lucky enough to find one second hand - very unlikely. You have to contact the man.

[Loren]

I've played lots of recorder, everything from plastic models through Von Huene (sp) super models.

Wow, the boss must have been holding out on me, I made Rippert, Bressan, Terton, Denner, Stansby Jr., Sherer, Ganassi, Loeki, and Baroque Tenor model recorders at Von Huene, but never a "Super" model.

None of them sound remotely like the Swayne whistle to me.

Guess I was hearing it wrong, my bad.

[Peter Duggan]

I've played lots of recorder

But so has Loren and so have I (though the nearest I've come to making them is making and fitting my own blocks)...

None of them sound remotely like the Swayne whistle to me.

And it seems we have a range of (subjective?) perception here from your 'not remotely' through my 'elements' to Loren's 'sounds like'!

[dunnp]

I think it has a very interesting tone. It would annoy me though to not have a nice easy high b note. For faster stuff if you could accentuate the between the octaves type of sound (buzziness) it might sound great. I would love to give it a go.

Have you listened to the Garvie clips in the other thread? That clip has more of what I'd expect from a low whistle sound. This begs the question though, if you are going to spend a small fortune on a high end wooden low whistle do you want it to sound like the more generic metal low whistle sound or do you want a unique sound.

Still makes you wonder if Garvie would make a boxwood whistle?

[cboody]

I've played lots of recorder, everything from plastic models through Von Huene (sp) super models.

Wow, the boss must have been holding out on me, I made Rippert, Bressan, Terton, Denner, Stansby Jr., Sherer, Ganassi, Loeki, and Baroque Tenor model recorders at Von Huene, but never a "Super" model.

None of them sound remotely like the Swayne whistle to me.

Guess I was hearing it wrong, my bad.

If that's a dig, it missed The Von Huenes I played were from back in the day when Frederick (is that how he spells it) was the company. I don't recall the original models. But I'm sure you know what I meant by super.

Anyway, you and Peter will just have to agree to disagree with me. I don't hear that whistle as having a recorder sound, though I respect your right to.

[hans]

... if you are going to spend a small fortune on a high end wooden low whistle do you want it to sound like the more generic metal low whistle sound or do you want a unique sound.[?]

Is there a specific metal low whistle sound, compared to the sound of wooden low whistles?
I find that there is huge variety in the sound of low whistles, metal or not, between the varies makers, each maker succeeding in creating whistles with unique sound (and other qualities). Certainly nothing specific enough to suggest some kind of standard metal whistle sound.

[FascinatedWanderer]

I sort of don't understand the thing with low whistles... If the best thing about some of them is that you can lean into the low notes like with a flute, why not, you know... play a flute?

[narrowdog]

I sort of don't understand the thing with low whistles... If the best thing about some of them is that you can lean into the low notes like with a flute, why not, you know... play a flute?

some of us can't