Here are the details on this whistle - it’s unusual in more ways than one, so please read this whole message before e-mailing to tell me you’ll take it, okay? Okay…
As the title says, this is a Fred Rose Soprano D whistle I’m selling. Let me first say that this whistle plays (according to my tuner) at concert pitch with the tuning slide all the way in. So, if you’re one of those folks who really needs to be able to tune your whistle both flat and sharp of Concert pitch, well I guess you can skip the rest of this post.
If you’re still reading then I assume you’re still interested, so let’s move on…
I acquired this whistle in a trade. Now there’s a whole long story behind this, but I don’t think any of us want to be here all day, so here’s the upshot: This whistle is Boxwood. Boxwood tends to be a good bit more reactive to changes in moisture than Blackwood and the like. This whistle came to me from England - where it’s quite humid mind you. IMO, The previous owner seriously over oiled this instrument - to the point where it sweat oil constantly for almost two weeks after I received it.
I’ve had the whistle a couple of months now, and the whistle has been stabilized in terms of moisture content.
So what’s my point? Just this, if you buy this whistle you will have to keep the body section in a humidified container when you aren’t playing it; A Tupperware container with a lid, and inside the tupperware, a perferated ziploc bag with a small sponge inside of it. Alternately you could do what I do and use a small guitar humidifier. At any rate, if you do not follow my advice, the body of this whistle will likely warp, and could possibly crack. Take care of it and you’re not likely to have any problems.
Conversely, you may need to keep the head joint away from excessive humidity: For some reason when the headjoint is kept at the same humidity as the body, it stops playing well. My theory here is that because the Rose windway is all wood, and the wooden fipple block likely absorbed more oil than the rest of the whistle, I believe that some small amount of oil is still seeping into the windway, and when you add excessive humidity to that, you get some condensation. Perhaps this will clear up with time, however I can’t promise this.
I can assure you that the whistle plays wonderfully and sounds fantastic when it is stored as recommended, but I want to be clear that this whistle is a bit unusual in terms of how it needs to be cared for.
Other than that idiosyncrasy, the whistle is phenomenal, I really hate to part with it! I find the Boxwood is beautiful and somewhat uncommon - you see so few Boxwood whistles out there. Also, the tone of this whistle is really unique…It’s got a sort of drier tonal quality, plus the whistle pruduces some good honk and bark, similar to a really good Irish Flute - very, very cool!
Now that I have my own place to host a few photo’s, I’ll try to get one or two up shortly, unless someone buys the whistle first.
Asking Price for this Very Rare Boxwood Fred Rose Soprano D $300 + shipping. I’ll discuss the shipping charges with the buyer prior to the sale as my preference would be to ship the whistle Via Overnight delivery, but ultimately I’ll leave the shipping method up to the buyer.
I think that about covers it except to say that the whistle does include the custom made green cloth carrying pouch Fred supplies with his whistles.
Drop me an e-mail if interested in this whistle - please do not use my private message box on the message board - I often can’t tell I’ve even got any messages there.
Thanks,
Loren
(edited to correct some really atrocious spelling 
Dyslexia is a bitch!)
[ This Message was edited by: Loren on 2002-06-04 11:11 ]
