I have a thin weasel in D, it’s a great whistle, I really enjoy it, but the higher notes are quite shrill, does anyone else who has a thin weasel feel this is the case with theirs…
[ This Message was edited by: IrishBen on 2001-11-29 21:54 ]
Yup, I’ve got two and they are both that way. Love it or hate it, that’s the way Glenn makes 'em.
Loren
Yah, so what…my Copeland nickel D is shrill, my Susato Eb is shrill, my Generation Eb is shrill. Who cares…Glenn Schultz makes one of the finest whistles today and besides, the places I play the shrillness is moot…ya want mellow, get a recorder!
I wouldn’t call the 2nd octave notes on my thin weasel ‘shrill’.
Loud, perhaps..but not shrill.
Well, shrill is such a subjective thing…I agree with the original poster, but only in sort of a relative way. I don’t find the high octave of the TW’s to be as painful as say, most Copelands I’ve tried, but they are certainly louder and more piercing on the last couple of notes than many whistles.
Still, I like my Thin Weasels, So I think it just boils down to taste, right?
Loren
Having played my Waterweasels and a Thinweasel for about a year or so now, but having little prior whistle experience, I can offer some observations. I know the 2nd octave shrill edge that you speak of. I have found that as I have gotten to know my weasel whistles better over time, I unconsciously adapted my breathing/blowing technique so as to almost completely eliminate that shrillness, and replace it with a slightly chiffed/fluted edge on top of the natural PVC tonality. I’ve noticed 2 specific changes. I now play with less fipple inside my mouth than when I started and occasionally “leak” a little air as I’m playing. Second, my breath source originates now more from “way inside” and “back” of my mouth, as opposed to the air blowing being sourced from the front of my mouth. I think what I’m doing is somehow “pre-loading” my note breathing, I don’t know the correct tecnical terminology, but it amounts to keeping some pressure or hot air around the whistle edge before/between notes so that the note articulations don’t come in “unsupported” or “cold”. Also, if I overblow, which I tend to do if the choir or session group gets loud, the shrillness or rather, the piercing tonal quality of the weasel slips back in. Its hard to describe, but the sound I generate from the weasels now is far less “shrill” than all my other whistle brands except Copeland (a tie with the weasels, as far as my can tell). And whereas I initially thought the weasels require a lot of 2nd octave breath demand, I now play 2nd octave very comfortably, and the weasel demands a lot less 2nd octave breath than my non-tweaked Clarkes. 3rd octave for me above 3rd D still has a piercing/shrill aspect, but when I occasionally play 3rd D or 3rd E as part of a choir with many other instrument sounds, and I also keep the 3rd octave notes short, then the piercing shrillness seems to be dissipated. So, for me, Weasel “shrill avoidance” was accomplished through altered breathing/articulation technique. I wonder if others have noticed or can explain these subtle technique modifications.