I thought I’d talk about my Hoover high E, high D, and low G CPVC whistles all in the same post, since they share many qualities.
Last year I bought a Hoover high E CPVC whistle (tunable,with brass trim), because I needed something to play along with a couple of slow airs that I had on CD. I went with the Hoover because I’d had such good luck with a variety of Whitecaps (and because Mack is such a neat guy), and picked CPVC just to try something different.
The whistle is well made, as expected, and surprisingly attractive. The CPVC is more ivory than white, and the brass trim matches it nicely.
Even more of a surprise than the appearance was the sound. It has an interesting complexity, similar to the bamboo A that Mack made for me last year. I’d say that it’s “reedy” or “kazoo-like”, but that would be misleading, because the sound is much nicer than those terms imply to me. It’s “sweet”, but not “pure”, if that makes any sense–and definitely not “hissy”, “airy”, or “breathy”. At any rate, I fell in love with that sound, and knew that I wanted to get some other keys with that quality.
I thought that the complexity came from the way the entire whistle seems to vibrate, which I took to be a characteristic of the CPVC that it’s made from. I mentioned this to Mack when I ordered the D and G last month, but he said that he thinks it’s more in the fipple design. So, maybe it’s just a fluke that none of my Whitecaps on metal tubes have this sound quality. Whatever it is, the D and G share this quality with the E, so I’m very happy.
All three are responsive and very easy to play, having a fair amount of back pressure, though not quite as much as my Syn. They all do best with OXXXOX for the equivalent of the high D C-natural.
Here are some specifics on each of the three whistles:
High E: Pretty well balanced across the octaves till you hit the second octave B (XXOOOO), when the volume goes up rather abruptly.
High D: Better balanced than the E. Even the second octave C# isn’t too piercing, though it is louder than the other second octave notes. Made like the E, with the brass trim.
Low G: Wonderful balance, right up through the second octave F# (OOOOOO). The sound is wonderful, too. I think this is the sound I had in mind when I first started on the whistle. This is now definitely my desert island whistle.
The fingering is nice, too. I had a Shaw low G for a while, and the stretch between holes 5 and 6 (counting from the top) caused me a lot of pain. This made me a bit hesitant to start going for the lower whistles. I needn’t have worried. I can play with my fingertips, although I do angle my fingers down a bit. (Is that what’s called the "modified piper’s grip?) It’s very comfortable to play.
The low G doesn’t have the brass trim like the D and E,but it does have a brass tuning slide.
The high D and E were $55 each. The low G was $60. These prices include USPS shipping. As usual, Mack was very responsive and enjoyable to deal with.