Well it only arrived the night before last, I’d just got in from work when the lass across the way brought me a parcel that had been left for me.
My new Alba Alto Standard in the key of G, so whats it like? well the 1st thing to say is (sorry Stacey) the pics on Alba’s web site just DO NOT do it justice - the brushed aluminum of the body, the polished aluminium of the head and polished tufnol of the block all blend together to give a modern, almost industial look softened by the 3 groups of turned rings on the body and the stamp of the alba logo at the top and the key a the bottom - this look leaves you in no doubt, this is a Whistle and from the looks a whistle that should sing!
It,s quite a big whistle at 18" (or 450mm for my french friend) which is bigger than any of my own homemade copper ones, with a fairly narrow bore.
So how does it play? well very very nicely indeed, and yes SING it does! for ease of description I’ll use the standard d config for notes eg (bagfed) bottom d is very slightly quieter than the other lower octave notes and upper d and x-fingered c nat are a little bit ciff’yer that the other notes, BUT I almost sure this is down to newness - thats me not the whistle and it has to be said that the chiffyness was worse when I first picked it up. (Note this is not a chiffy whistle at all!)
also it plays very easily and I can play jigs on it, something I have alway found difficult on bigger whistles (getting the fingers to move quick enough).
These are only a 1st view of the whistle - so how would I rate it? to die for 
as soon as I’m well enough to start working overtime again I’m going to be buying more Alba’s a low D, low Bb pos a hi d and err a …(hey is there a discount for bulk) 