Somebody (sorry, I don’t remember who!) asked me to post my impressions of my Burke Al-Pro D after I played it for the gig we had on the 9/28/02 (which happened to be our band anniversary to the day).
So, by way of comparison, lemme post what I’ve previously played, and briefly what I didn’t like about them for gigs. I’ve previously played Thin Weasels, Sweetones, and Silkstones at band gigs. Nearly all of our gigs are indoors in pubs usually with heavy air conditioning (like every building in houston..heh!)
When playing the Silkstones, I usually used the PVC. I like the alloy better, but it was too hard to keep it warmed up (I don’t play whistle on every set). Under Houston indoor conditions (cold AC, high humidity) the alloy clogged pretty fast. I’ve come to detect a “plastic-like” hollowness of tone in the PVC silkstone that I’d prefer to leave out of professional gigs. I like the Sweetones “pick it up and play with no-worries” ability. But it really doesn’t allow for a lot of breath-control expressiveness. I really liked the thin weasel, but had to sell it a while back to make ends meet. Unfortunately, it would also be a bit cloggy and tempermental by the 3rd hour. I do clear whistles between sets of tunes. I dont’ expect 'em to last 4 hours without me having to clear them..but eventually, many start getting ‘waterlogged’, where they clog up in the middle of a set of tunes even though I’d just cleared the whistle.
For band gigs (as opposed to Rennaisance Faires, sessions, or my own personal enjoyment) I want a whistle that’ll go the distance. It’s gotta sound good, but it also has to have stamina. Volume’s not such an issue, because we amp everything to appropriately balanced levels. The sweetone and the silkstone pvc are the only whistles that’s I’ve ever had last an entire gig, but they both had the sound issues I note above. While carrying 2 thin weasel D’s would work, I’d really rather just have to have one whistle do the work.
So, I’ve been playing this Burke for a month, and on Saturday put it to the test. The whistle warmed up easily and quickly. I really enjoyed the tone of this instrument. It has some indefinable quality that I just really like. I mingle with the pub patrons on breaks, and some of our audience commented on great it sounded, too. As the pub is an Irish pub, owned by an Irish lady, and the patronage are mostly all Irish, I considered it a great compliment.
The whistle is responsive and has extremely fast action for ornamentation…my fingers seemed to fly over the holes ornamenting fast reels, without getting muddled-sounding. It’s easier to blow the second octave than my silkstone alloy, but has less back-pressure, so I’m going to have to learn new breathin spots. I’m finding myself without air a couple of notes earlier than I’m used to. The whistle lasted the entire 4 hours. At about 12:10am (3 hours in) I noticed the E start to get a little touchy and weak, and preformed a spit-suck maneuver (which I’d never done before), which cleared it out and it lasted for the remainder of the night without incident. This might have been due to excessive salivation, though..one of our fans brought spicy irish sausages to celebrate our anniversary and I couldn’t resist grabbing a couple on a break! 
My only complaint; The whistle is polished aluminum, which makes it quite bright and shiny in a pub, but also slippery. The silkstone alloy has a milled texture, so the whistle feels secure in your hands. The Burke is slippery-feeling, like a nickel generation. I found myself thinking about whistle slipperiness a couple of times in the evening. Luckily, I eventually got used to it on the nickel generation F I play in the band, so I’m sure that I’ll come to grips with it on the Burke as well.
So, all in all, I have to proclaim the whistle a success. So much so that I’m seriously considering replacing my other gig-whistles (F and Bb) with Burkes…But i’m going to give it a couple of more months or so to ensure the new-whistle-syndrome is totally gone before making that plunge. Hmm..that’ll be just in time for Christmas… 
[ This Message was edited by: Wandering_Whistler on 2002-10-01 10:51 ]