If anyone here owns one, whats your take on this whistle. Be it aluminum, brass or composite.
-Eric
The very finest Burke I own is an Eb session pro in brass, with the black tip. I bought it directly from Mike when he was out visiting here. I compared it with four others and chose it. It’s a sweet, nimble whistle that I can play what SEEMS like 25% faster because the backpressure is perfect. The regular D’s seem plodding by comparison. I let MurphyStout and Tony Higgins play it at a whistle party and they confirmed it’s superior nature. Stout, who doesn’t care for Burkes much, really liked it.
It’s more uniformly in tune than the three D’s I own. . It’s a perfect whistle. I think that his design features reach the zenith on that particular key (you know, fipple design, wall thickness, etc. etc.). Because its a bit narrower, I thought that maybe a D narrow bore would be similar, and I bought one, but it wasn’t even close to the quality in sound and playability. Because I own E’s in both brass and aluminum, and have been able to compare them, I recommend the brass because it’s so sweet. The high aluminums just seem a little out of control from note to note. I also own a high G in Alum and wish I had ordered a brass.
IF there is anyway you can get to Mike and pick one, I highly recommend doing it that way.
Thanks for the input! Well, I don’t know if mike had any plans on visiting the Phoenix, AZ area anytime soon, but if he did, great! I’ve been wanting a good clear Eb whistle. I already own two burkes in aluminum, the C and D. I don’t have anything against brass, I have a Generation F and G that do sound sweet, ear piercing, but sweet. I have a Shaw and a Nickle generation Eb, but the Shaw is too breathy and the Generation is just horrible period. Susato makes a good whistle, but I don’t like the recordery tone. (Made a new word there…) Thanks again!
-Eric
A question for everyone:
is there really that much ITM out there in the key of Eb? Other than playing along with some of my Pogues CD’s I’ve never encountered any. Would it be worth it to get an expensive Eb whistle? I hope to one day have a nice whistle in every key but I need to make a priority list. Should the Eb be further down on the list?
Eb (as well as Bb) gets you close to GHB tuning if you like to play along. Other than that, I’ve seen C&F board comments along the lines of D tunes (that is, D fingering) on an Eb offer a brighter crisper sound. Hain’t tried it yet, but may go the low Eb route someday.
No, there isn’t really that much traditional Irish music in Eb. But who says you have to use this key for traditional Irish music? 
Actually, if you like to play along with recordings, it’s very good to own an Eb and a Bb. For example, the Frankie Gavin Tribute to Joe Cooley (as well as some of his other recordings), which has many familiar session tunes, is almost all in keys that require those whistles. This has been discussed before, that there was a time period (maybe the 80s?) when various good players were using the keys, maybe just to be different, who knows… But G and D reels sound very nice on the Eb. It’s always good to have something extra to stimulate your interest, and sometimes, just hearing a tune in a different key has that effect. You might not be using them much in a local session of course…
Not to mention Joe Cooley’s own album, which is at least half on a D/D# box, meaning that you need an Eb whistle to play along.
Also requiring Eb are the recordings of Dervish, Mary Bergin, Loretto Reid…
An even better reason to buy such a whistle. For me anyways. I like the Eb for playing along with Highland bagpipes. You can do the same with the Bb, but you miss that highland pipe low G. Sure you could do it all in the upper octave of the whistle, but my Generation is too shrill and airy sounding for that. I’d get more use out of the Eb than the Bb anyways. But this is just me. I just bought the Generation Bb cause it’s 7$ and playable. It isn’t the most sweetest sounding whistle, it’s just nice to have. Definitely not a solo performer. 