Well, I received the whistles a couple days ago and have been putting them through their paces. All I can say is, what wonderful instruments. I was surprised at the volume of both, the aluminum narrow bore in particular. It’s actually a bit louder than my AlPro session.
The aluminum narrow bore is like a feather in your hand, perfectly balanced. It weighs next to nothing, but produces a wonderfully bright, but full sound and is simply pristine in the high end. The fisrt octave is very solid with an unbelievably solid bell note. Both octaves are very well balanced, and as with all of Mike’s whistles, intonation is right on the money in both octaves. This whistle can take some very aggressive playing, which will be great for live gigs and sessions. You can really belt out some tunes on this whistle without sounding like it’s being overblown if the mood moves you, or produce the delicate tones for airs. Whatever your mood or tune, this whistle can handle it. Love it! I can understand why Joanie Madden and Mary Rafferty highly recommend it.
The brass narrow bore is just slightly softer in volume and tone, a bit sweeter, deeper tone, but still plenty loud when needed, and crystal clear on the high end. Again, excellent balance in both octaves with a very solid fist octave and bell note…and very accurate intonation in both octaves. Love it as well.
I also like the new delrin tip Mike has begun using. So far, unlike my AlPro that clogs easily, neither of these are presenting clogging problems.
I’d be difficult to pick a favorite at this point. It depends on the tune and the mood. Both have their own character and personality. I CAN say that I like both better than my AlPro session. I still like the AlPro, but not as much as the tone I’m hearing from either of these narrow bores. One of the whistle players in our session group has a new Burke brass session pro, and I prefer my narrow bores. Naturally, this is all personal. To me, a high D whistle should sound like, well…a whistle…like someone whistling. There’s a certain quality to it. That’s one thing I admire about Paddy Maloney’s style. He likes small bore pure-tone high D whistles, and when listening to him play, you can easily imagine someone walking along an Irish dirt road, whistling away. That’s what these narrow bores remind me of, and are exactly what I want a high D whistle to sound like. My Sindt D fits this quality as well, but don’t play it much anymore because of the sharp C-nat that seems to be inherent in John’s D whistles. I prefer the sound and volume of these Burke narrow bores anyway.
These are top notch instruments and I’m glad I decided to get both. Excuse me, gotta go…too many tunes, so little time!
DRC
