Can anyone identify this Low F I came across on YouTube? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy7_vvgBfBw
Hiya Mike!
It’s hard to see on my phone, but the mouthpiece looks a lot like my Old Style Chieftain Low D. And it sort of sounds like it, but in F. Anybody else have an idea?
Randy
Looks and sounds like a Hohner to me.
Thanks for the replies. Randy, I would have thought an OS Chieftain would be more breathy than that. It had quite a pure tone. benhall.1, I didn’t know Hohner made whistles let alone low whistles. Do you know any more about them? Have you tried them for example?
I’ve looked into Hohner whistles and there’s no mention of a low F being made, low G being the lowest made.
I’m sure Gerry a can. His email is on his website.
My humble guess is a Colin Goldie. The head profile looks a bit different though. Lambe maybe? Ask the man, he knows.
Feadoggie
Where did you find what keys they were in Mike? Mine was (is) a Bb, I think. Might be a low A (alto, not bass). I think it’s in a bag of old whistles knocking about the place somewhere …
They used to be readily available in the 70s and 80s over here. You could get them everywhere. I’ve just read Dale’s little article about them, which suggests that they were not available after the 60s, but that certainly isn’t the case for the UK. I could have got any number of them. I didn’t … because the one I had wasn’t really to my taste, tbh. I remember that it’s now really beat up. I’ll look it out at some point …
I’d be interested in knowing what keys the Hohner was available in as well. Does anyone here have a definitive answer?
Ian Turnbull offer this in a post once regarding Kwela.
Not to take away from the original inquiry.
Feadoggie
Feadoggie, thanks for the obvious tip but I didn’t know Ger stood for Gerry. I dropped him a line though to see if it was Hohner or something else.
My information about the keys was simply from Dale’s article on them. He seemed to think that their low G was one for the first low whistles and doesn’t mention a low F. I certainly loved the sound of the whistle Gerry was playing and since I might be in the market for a low F that isn’t too pricey I was wondering whether any Hohners would be on the market now.
I’ll let you know if I hear back from him.
The whistle looks exactly like a Goldie but it sounds not like a Goldie, I’d say. I really enjoyed its sound.
Can’t this be a Eugene Lambe’s whistle who plays a piece on a similar one in one of vids of this channel? That whistle there is tunable, with a sleeve like a Kpro or Chieftain but apart of this looks similar.
It is no Hohner, I am sure. All mentions of Hohners I ever met on the Internet were of whistles in C, Bb and G keys.
Well, I contacted Gerry and he said it was a Goldie as you suggested. It didn’t sound like a Goldie to me. It sounded great but just not like a Goldie. So there you go. I’m still now intrigued to find out if there are any Hohners on the market, especially something like a low G.
I’m almost certain Hohner no longer make them and I concur with the Viking of Kiev on the keys they did make. Intrigued by the Tenor/Low G in a music shop window in Glasgow in the late 70s (Only Generations or Clarkes were common in those days and neither company produced or produces in that key) I bought examples in G,Bb and C. The shop proprietor even had a look in the catalogue when I enquired if other keys were available and to quote the Wild Rover ‘answered me nay’.
They were not great players IMHO, very prone to clogging so I tended not to use them much. The C is long gone, I know not where, but I still have the G and the Bb if anyone is interested in pictures or whatever.
All my goldies were made in a similar way, so I haven’t played/heard the extend of how much the customization of the whistle can affect things, but does Colin not offer quite a bit of options, as far as customizing the whistles he makes to the person’s taste, as far as sound and playability, to an extent? That could account for the difference in what you are hearing.
Or, the room acoustics, recording device, etc, too, and the player!