Hey Folks,
I recently received a Bleazey Boxwood whistle in C and since I hadn’t seen much about his whistles on the board I thought a review might be helpful.
Boxwood is a light wood with a subtle grain. The tight grain tells me that the wood is strong. It is nicely finished all around, every visible surface is finished. The fipple plug is of a darker, reddish wood, a nice contrast to the boxwood. The bell is slightly flaired. The slide is brass with an internal brass sleeve and works very smoothly. The finger-hole edges are not bevelled but are finished nicely. The Bleazey logo is stamped on the headjoint. The only negative is that the mouthpiece is stubby for my taste.
The tuning is mostly right on. There are variations up to -5 cents but the tuning can be corrected by adjusting the amount of puff pressure. The Bb OXX OOO (remember this is a C whistle) is slightly sharp but OXX OXX or OXX XOO is right on. A weakness is that the whistle is in tune with the tuning slide fully closed, so you can only tune to the flat side of in-tune.
As I mentioned, the tuning is sensitive to puff pressure. It has a slight chiff, but not at all distracting like a Shaw. This gives it a distinctly “whistlely” character without sounding like you’ve sprung a leak. The volume is moderate and stays even through the second octive F. The second octive G gets noticably louder and at this note the second octive is also harder to hold. But it is cleanly playable to the 3rd octive C. It is responsive to ornamentations and slides.
It cost 90. GBP. With shipping and insurance it came to 122. GBP and Phil had one in stock so there was no wait. Phil accepts only international drafts in GBP which was something of a hassel. The whistle comes with a cloth cover with the Bleazey logo on it. Let’s face it, wooden whistles are not a necessity, but if you’ve got WoWhOA (Wood Whistle Acquisition) disorder, I’d recommend a Bleazy.
Vinny
[ This Message was edited by: Vinny on 2002-01-23 11:01 ]
