Any opinions on Bleazey Low whistles would be most welcome.
Cheers,
Jason
I have a low D in Damson. It is the nicest sounding whistle that I own, but one of the most picky about breath control. It has sweet sounding notes up to and including the second Cnat, C# and third D (but there are ‘special’ fingerings for these).
The bell note is strong (though not as strong as my Goldie Overton). The back-pressure is not as great as the Goldie Overton. The whistle is a bit quieter than the Goldie Overton - but that could be the wood. PB’s web site suggests blackwood for full volume whistles.
The holes are relatively small for a low whistle, but I can half-hole the D for a D#. I could learn to half hole others, but I prefer a cross-fingered Cnat, and have not found much use for other accidentals yet.
If I had to lose all my whistles but one, I would keep the Bleazey.
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HTH
Thank you very much Phil. Very helpful and I appreciate you sharing that information.
Cheers.
A pleasure.
Jason,
A friend of mine in town owns a Bleazy low D and one of his Rudall flutes in D.
I was able to spend a little time one afternoon trying them both.
I’ll start with the low D since that is what you are interested in.
The wood was black wood and the quality of craftmanship was excellent.
As you can see from the picture on his website that it is built like one of his flutes but it has a whistle head on it. It has a tuning slide like a flute, conical bore like a flute, comes apart in three pieces like a flute. The tenons have cork on them like a flute. The holes on the whistle are small and similarly spaced like his flute.
I didn’t get a lot of time to play it but I can give you my general impressions. It doesn’t require a lot of air to play and the holes are small and easy to cover. The volume is quiet and the tone was fairly pure with not a lot of air in it. It would be a nice solo instrument or best played with a small group of quiet musicans. The tone was dark and woody. Not the metalic buzz that you get from a metal whistle but at the same time not the complexity and sizzle that you might hear from a flute player.
To sum it up, later that week I emailed Mr. Bleazy and ordered one of his flutes! At the time I was not a flute player and had never played a flute (period, not even a silver flute or a fife). In the brief few moments that I held the flute and blew a few notes on it I was hooked. The tone production was easy and it had a dark reedy sound that was captivating! Sorry to digress here about the flute.
I still own the flute, but when I get the urge to play a low D I have a Howard. It is a bit of a stretch for me to play and the holes are large and hard to cover but the tone production is fairly easy and it has that deep, satisfying buzz that characterizes a low D.
Hope this helps!
Nate
Wonderful Nate. Thank you for posting that information. I appreciate it very much.