I am interested in getting an Alba Low D. Does anyone have any feedback on Alba whistles, perhaps own one already. They look great on the website and I read one decent review on the C&F Mainsite, but I am looking for more info to base my decision on.
Thanks!
I recently bought an Alba Low Bb.
It’s a real monster 
I can’t say about low D, only my Low Bb…
It plays like a dream, well balanced on both octaves and into the third one too. Volume is fair - not quiet, but not as loud as a Chieftain or Kerry Pro.
Deep and creamy is how I would describe the sound.
Warm up in minimal.
I have yet to get it flubb because of a wet windway, so the curved wind channel is ace - Serpent whistles have just started to supply curved windway whistles, so it’s not just me that finds the curve superb
(bad attempt at poetry there!).
The finish is not a highly polished one like Overtons, but it is very acceptable.
Value for money = excellent.
The only other whistle I say that about is my Dixon sop D (but not the Bb).
I own Chieftains, Dixons, Gen’s, Clarke, Meg, Sweetone, Oak, Walton, and
a Kerry Pro Low D - which is possibly the best whistle in the universe, but it was pricey.
As soon as I have the cash, I’m ordering another Alba (Bb this time).
Eventually, I’d like a complete set.
HTH
I normally won’t comment on a whistle I’ve never played and won’t comment now other than to say that you might want to do a search of the Whistle board before ordering one. There are a great many comments here by folks who HAVE played one.
Many’s the day I’ve traveled a hundred miles or more, but tobacco in a tinwhistle I never saw before.
Slightly off the topic of this post…but I love that song…but I only have a Dubliners version, where they leave out the last two verses…do you know of any recordings where they sing them all?
Has Stacey changed the design of Albas? It seems that the things people are saying recently don’t jibe with the experiences of many of us. The old design was EXTREMELY breath-intensive – it requires a ton of both pressure and air. This results in a whistle that absolutely cannot be played quietly, and that is difficult to play beyond a high-G or so. The aluminum one I have is decent sounding, the polymer just screams too much. They’re about the most visually appealing non-wooden whistles I own.
So, can anyone tell us: is the blade still curved? I don’t mean in the traditional sense – Stacey used a flat file (or stone, whatever) to create the blade from heavy-walled tubing, resulting in a blade that made a C shape if you look down at the whistle with the mouthpiece to your right. I just don’t see how that design can make an efficient coupling of the air stream to the blade.
I hear that Stacey has changed the design. I suggest that you contact her directly and ask her about it. Serpent, who has been getting some help from Stacey for whistle-building recently, has posted a very postive review just last month. I remember it on Gaelic Crossing, but it may have been here on c&f, too.
I would love to give an Alba a try (Stacey: hint hint… I’ll send it back after I’ll review it. ).
They are btw among the prettiest whistles you’re likely to find anywhere, without the Bauhaus austerity of say an Overton. If I were you I would go ahead, and if you are worried, ask Stacey if you can have 30 days to return if it doesn’t suit you, or something of that nature..
Yes the blade is curved (and so is the windway).
It’s not stone-washed or nail-filed, just machined 
For the odd shape, I’ll say it just works. Look at it in bright light through the windway, and it might satisfy your logic. The tubing is not that thick to me: I see the same gauge of aluminium as with a Kerry Pro. Now what this peculiar shape does, is make the blade sharper than with most whistles with a curved windway. Those usually have a rounded blade (see a Susato, typically) with a pretty steep angle.
BTW, one of these days I’ll post a pix of a wood whistle made in France with an even stranger blade design: its slope is stronger on the sides than in the middle. And it works, too. It’s even one of the best sounding whistles I heard, if you’re not after chiff and breathiness.
I have a recent (late 2002) Alba Low C (same design as the Low Bb), and if I did sent it back, it’s to get an extra (Bb…) tube. Though a very wide bore, the air demands are moderate–lower than on my wooden Low D if higher than on the Overton low C and much higher than on my Kerry Pro low D. I’d say what I loose in gas mileage, I make back in ease of drive… It’s not loud, but it does have the most stable, balanced low tones (bell C + D above) I’ve enjoyed on a low whistle: the volume doesn’t drop, and the voice remains itself, without the usual chiff and/or buzz when you try to push the volume. To some, it may be of some importance, esp. on a low whistle.
Now this is IMHO, and of course some may disagree. So…
I think Bloomfield gives the reasonable advice on this topic.
Check out what Phil say’s At Big Whistle 
http://www.bigwhistle.co.uk/
Check out the version on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. Can’t remember off hand who does it but it’s the version everybody learnt that song from.
Thanks to all who responded with feedback. I made the decision this morning and ordered the standard Low D. Should have it within a month’s time.
I liked the Alba Low Ds a lot. Exceptionally attractive whistles, visually, by the way. Moderate in volume. Sort of in the same family of voices as Overton but not quite as booming.
Good stuff, anyway.
The version I was referring to is called ‘Drunkard’s Special’ and is by Coley Jones and was recorded in about 1927. The song goes by other names but this is the earliest recorded verison I know of and the easiest place to find it.