Besides Shanna Quay, where does one fine an
O’Briainne? ( I can never get the spelling right.)
To the best of my knowledge, Shanna Quay is the only place that offers them via mail order, so if you’re in the U.S. or Canada, it’s probably your only option (FWIW, however, they have GREAT customer service, which I also take into account when deciding if the price of a particular whistle is “right”). Sounds like there may be several places where you can pick one up if you happen to be in Ireland, however.
Redwolf
The O’briain I have has a generation head (green- folk model) I think. He has removed the old blade and replaced it with a clear plastic blade glued in its place. I don’t know about the tube. If you like generations and want a nice clear 2nd octave, this is a great whistle. I use it more than a few of my higher end whistles, but it is not very loud.
Thanks,
Patrick
Yeah, I prize customer service too and I don’t have any reason not to use Shanna Quay. I was just wondering. I think I’ll order one soon. I’m having terrible luck with cheap whistles.
On 2002-10-08 03:23, Peter Laban wrote:
They are nice but what he does is cut away a tiny bit from the blade. I had two useless feadog and took the file to them, completing the operation within a few minutes with same results. Worth the effort.
Interesting–mine has a wedge of clear plastic added to the blade. I echo the endorsements that are in this thread. Right now, my O’Briain whistle is the one that tends to get picked up. I am reasonably certain that it is the best ‘generic’ (i.e., one piece metal body, one piece plastic head/fipple/mouthpiece) whistle around. If all of the horror stories I hear about certain ‘Generics’ is true, you have to buy three to get a good one anyway. You can avoid the heartbreak and get one of these instead.
All of which is to say, I sure like mine.
Tom D.
Interesting, I saw four or five in shops/stalls over the summer and had the impression nothing was added, only taken away. Whatever the way, they work fine, I wasn’t into spending 20 Euro on a whistle I didn’t really need so doctored the dead ones I already had. I fully agree that this type of whistle can’t be beaten, I have one high end one and have played a lot of others but when I play to enjoy myself I won’t ever pick up the expensive one, in fact over time the squeaky clean sound of it becomes more irritating and characterless to my ears.
Thanks to all who have posted for your feedback. I’ve decided to go ahead and give an O’Briain Improved a shot… gotta feed the ol’ WhOA somehow while working on the wife to give me the go ahead on another high end wooden whistle.
~Larry