A Pleasant Surprise (Whistle Review)

Whistle
1

So I made a pleasant little discovery recently, and thought I’d share it with you folks. I’m very picky about D whistles and I’ve never had one I really liked other than my dad’s old Generation, which doesn’t exactly play nicely with other instruments. I’d recently played a excellent Bb Carbony and decided to give their D a try, knowing from past experience that a maker’s low whistles are often no reflection of their high whistles. In this case however, it is! Lovely tone, perfect volume for both session and solo playing, excellent tuning and low backpressure. I tend to scoff at the “high-tech” whistles (despite having owned a few), but this a winner for me. Perhaps a bit more breath noise than I like independent of the tone, but it’s the most reliably in-tune and pleasant whistle I’ve played. They cost about the same as Burkes, and my subjective opinion is that you get a lot more character for your money with Carbony.

https://soundcloud.com/ravencake/gallant-boys-of-tipperary

Played a bit on it, but my headphones don’t have a great mic.

2

Thank you for the review. It sounds great in your clip !

I have been searching all over the site and online for a comparative whistle guide, but cannot find one. Is there any chance you can direct me to one ?

Thanks!

3

Interesting ideas there… double whistles with a drone, Great Highland whistles, lots of variations on the idea… flutes, too. Not cheap, but interesting.

4

These people?

https://carbony.com/

I am surprised, and it goes to show 1) that how a firm’s low whistles play might not reflect on their high whistles and/or 2) our tastes differ.

I visited their booth at a Highland Games and I played a couple of their Low D Whistles, one of their Highland Practice Chanters, and their Spanish Gaita. (These are all instruments I play.)

I didn’t care for how any of them played. Then again, I’m judging any Low Whistle I try against the ones I usually play (Goldie, MK, Burke) which set the bar pretty high.

5

Does anyone have an example anywhere of one of their double/drone whistles being played? I can’t find any on YT. (I’d think for the price of $400 they would post a video sample on their own site.)

6

Here you can see a demonstration played by a german distributor:

https://youtu.be/hK5rTBnXkfs

Did you mean this whistle?

7

Yes, great video, thanks! :slight_smile: