During a recent charity shop hunt i found the following Bb Whistle:
Seems to be handmade, feels “New”, but the plug looks lead. Which in this day and age people avoid as a whistle material.
Does anyone think they could cast some light on it? It sounds great!
It looks a lot like the modern cylindrical brass whistles coming out of India these days. Built in the fashion of the old Hohner whistles, I’m sure. I can’t tell from here, but if it is, I’d suspect that the block is simply pressed brass, rather than lead or some other weighty metal. If the head of the instrument feels light, or if you tap on the under part of the block and it sounds ‘hollow’, then this is probably the case. If you tap on the under part of the block and you get a dull ‘thud’ or it’s very heavy, then yeah, you might have a lead block. Quick fix there, of course, is a liberal application of clear nail varnish. Couple coats of that will have you merrily tootling away on your whistle!
I have a couple of these Indian made whistles – one all decorated with fancy (fake) gems, the other quite plain. Also have a nice low D Asarkar whistle. Sound is pretty good on all of them, particularly the Asarkar, and the tuning is actually quite good. The one’s I’ve seen on Ebay at least are not marked in any way, making yours a bit curious. There are no maker’s marks of any kind on it?
Anyway, looks like you made a good deal there!
Not maker marks, the only markings are the “Bb”.
The plug feels heavy and solid. On inside of the windway it’s dull and grey, yet on the curvature of the mouthpiece it’s shiny, which might suggest someone already has lacquered it.
Cheers for the thoughts!
Hm. Maybe not Indian make. Could just be an unmarked B&S type whistle from the good old days that’s just been kept in a drawer somewhere and never played. It looks pretty pristine!
My bet’s on indian. I found a couple of similar whistles back in the late nineties. The B never sounded so hot, but the A is a sweet sounding whistle. Mine were never so shiny, but like the above the only marks on them are the stamped key names. Pale yellow brassy colour, slightly whiter solder in the fipple.
I have an almost identical looking whistle. It is in C. Above the holes it has the brand “Asarkar” but beneath that is a soldered on thin metal band, obviously a label of some kind. I can’t quite make out the full lettering but it looks like “Madhu Bansi”. Some of the letters are a bit faint so I can’t be sure it’s that. When I bought it some years ago, I was told it was Indian. Relatively inexpensive. Plays reasonably but it tends to clog a bit after a while.
Looks like the consensus is modern Indian!
As far as Asarkars go, all those I’ve seen are well marked with a stamped brand. The above may not be Asarkar, but certainly could be.
“Madhu bansi” means “sweet flute” in, I believe, Hindi. Some Asarkars are so marked, others “Pipola” and some without any other kind of marking.
