I have read lots of people ranting about how much they love Colin’s Overton Low D whistles. And that is great. It seems like most of the Overton Low D Whistles these days are made by Colin.
But I want to know how people feel about recently made, or older Bernard Overton Low D whistles. What do you like about it? What are the challenges? How is the finish, hole finish? Do you have problems with clogging? Is it hard to blow, take a lot of air? And also if you have been able to compare it to a Colin Overton Low D whistle. I would be very curios to hear the comparison.
Hi Eric … Not a review, but we did another quick shootout last weekend between my friend’s 1984 Bernard Overton and my 2007 Colin Goldie, in the hands of whistler and musician extraordinaire Zac Leger.
My comments from 2 weeks ago still apply. Neither whistle has morphed into a monster. The Goldie may have a bit more edge and projection to the tone. The fit and finish of both are basically identical. We didn’t compare physical details of hole size, fipple geometry, etc.
Honestly, from a listener’s point of view (is that a contradiction?), in a blind test between the two whistles, I may not have been able to tell the difference, in the lower notes or otherwise. But it was just a quick shootout, not a systematic comparison. And Zac’s playing is far too distracting to focus entirely on the whistle.
Most Bernard Overton’s I’ve played (and I own half a dozen or so) are easier to blow and have shorter beaks than Colin’s standard model. Colin will make you a whistle that blows just as easily on request. Both are fantastic and I recommend them both unreservedly (I own half a dozen or so Colin Goldie Overtons as well).
There can be qute a bit of variation in Colin’s whistles because he is so willing to customize voicing and back pressure. All are excellent. I prefer the easy blowers as the lower back pressure and sweeter tone appeal to me personally.
The Bernards’ have less-smooth tone hole edges. I can tell a Bernard from a Goldie with my eyes closed because of this difference.
Beak, not b_r_eak. It’s roughly the area from the top of the fipple window to the tip of the mouthpiece. On some whistles, a longer beak (longer windway, actually) seems to create more backpressure, according to some anecdotal reports. So a shorter beak might seem easier blowing.
I have a whistle of both worlds now: a low D made by Bernard, repaired and finetuned by Colin. I think for most people the differences are very small. Colin learned making the Overton from Bernard and made his own improvements. I’ve always loved my Overton. As I bought it somehow the fipple had come out and was wrongly repaired, so it fell out again later. Colin repaired it for me then. I will never part of it, it’s a monument with a sound that cannot be compared to any other low-whistle. The haunting sound, the finetuned and smoothly finished holes, the perfect backpressure and volume, it’s amazing! And this goes for Bernard’s as well as Colin’s.
I have a Bernard Overton nontunable Low Eb, which falls into the “if you could take only one whistle with you to a desert island for the rest of your life” category. (and you could defend yourself AND dig clams with it…)
The basic Overton design really does create it’s own sound-world…which has a sneaky way of luring one into new and intriquing ways of whistling.
Just out of curiosity, for those of you who have bought Overtons from Bernard, how long did it take to reach you by mail? I know this would depend on your distance from him. But I live in Canada, so I am guessing for all my friends in the US the delivery time would be about the same.
I have a bit, (who am I kidding) a large case of wanting an Low D from him yesterday.
I just shattered the head on my Howard Low D by mistake. (don’t ask… it involved playing my whistle outside in minus degree weather dropping it into the snow band and the trying flick the snow off. But the head went flying off as well.) So I really would like to have a well playing Low D again.
For now I am playing a great deal of my Clarke C. I forgot how great of a whistle that is!
