Any ideas what this Low D whistle is please?
Ian Lambe or Cillian O’Briain? hard to tell without a closeup of the mouthpiece.
You think? I didn’t think the shape of the curved bit below the window matched either make.
To be honest i sold my O’Briain in the late 90’s but it looks like it from memory. 
Well it was on eBay for £60, so if its either an O’Briain or a Lambe I don’t think I got a bad price there for a tuneable whistle. The seller doesn’t know what it is but says: “an unusual Low D whistle I picked up in Ireland a few years ago. No makers stamp so maker not known. The tone is like nothing I’ve heard before on a whistle. Haunting, powerful and very expressive. Best whistle I’ve played for slow airs.”
So you bought it? Congrats and hope it lives up to the sellers claims, although i would charge more for a whistle that good
As far as i can remember my O’Briain came sans any stamp or makers mark..
Well, the jury is still out. I had a PM from someone who is pretty certain it was made by Phil Hardy though not one of his current whistles. For a better look at it, and listen, the seller provided this YouTube video: http://youtu.be/PnuLsQDUh2w. Does that help?
Try pulling the head all the way out and looking for etching (and check the inside of the bottom of the tube as well). I find it tough to believe that a whistle of this obvious quality doesn’t have SOME sort of makers’ mark on it!
Pat
Good idea, Pat. I will when it arrives. Thanks
Mike
It’s definitely not a Lambe, unless the appearance was different at some point. The Lambe uses different looking aluminium than a Goldie or Chieftain. It is reflective and looks more like the aluminium on a Burke.
Have you checked the video? The line around the slide and the fact that the slide is rounded suggest a Lambe to me now. On the other hand, the tone appears to be more complex than I would have anticipated with a Lambe, and I wouldn’t regard a Lambe as being a powerful whistle as the seller suggests. Having watched the video, the person who thought it was by Phil Hardy has changed his mind, thinking that Phil’s whistle would have had a brushed appearance. So I’m still none the wiser.
Why do you reckon the Lambe not to have “complex tone”? Just curious as i have never heard one being played.
Hmm, looks a lot like this one, doesn’t it Mike?!:
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/what-is-this-low-d/83814/1
You’re right, Barry. Looks like we’ve been here before.
Lars, from reviews and even from listening to a Lambe at one point it is supposed to have a much purer less complex tone. But looking back at the thread Barry suggested I’m increasingly wondering if it is in fact a Lambe.
Perhaps I should retract my statement, in this case. The one in the linked thread does indeed look like a Lambe. The tuning slide especially gives it away on that one.
Edit: Yeah, upon closer examination it looks like the tuning slide on that one has a little slit where it pushes up into the above part. I do think that is possibly a Lambe.
I should have looked more closely, as I think I was mistaken.
The picture does make the dimensions look somewhat differently though. I think they distort the size and colour a tad. In the picture it does also seem to have the tuning slide closer to the head than on mine, no logo on tuning slide, and the incline under the window looks to be at a different position. Anyone here play one of the older Lambes and can say if the appearance has changed at all?
I’d say you’ve come across a good find if you did get a Lambe for that price, Mike!
It looks in good condition too. As you say, a good find at that price. And I’ve always wanted to try a Lambe.
The one in this thread doesn’t look like an O’Briain to me. At least not like the one that I have. There are some similarities, though.
And btw mine is stamped O’Briain.
Well, the whistle arrived. I’m maybe thinking it is a Lambe but there are no markings. The tuning slide with rounded ends is so like the photos of the current Lambe. But my whistle uses no wood or delrin in the head. It’s all aluminium. The tone is not as pure as I expected but very nice, warm and complex, in the lower octave, more pure and edgy in the second octave. And it’s not quiet. It seems louder than my Goldie. So does anyone have further thoughts on whether I have an early Lambe Low D?
It’s hard to say. Is it possible to take some additional photos now that you have the whistle? Particularly to show the details of the slide and the head. That might elicit some more thoughts from folks. You could maybe contact Lambe. The high polish on his whistles is fairly unique - takes a bit of work to do that. The voice of the Lambe is probably its most unique feature I’ve thought. There must be something there that would identify his hand in it.
Maybe there’s something in here that will help out - http://www.enjoy-irish-culture.com/Irish-whistle.html.
Still, with no maker’s mark you may never really know. There have been a number of other hand crafted Irish made low whistles show up on eBay over the years. And some of those have been offered by their makers. They appear to be low volume, hobbyist builders. A number of those whistles strongly resemble the work of other makers - imitation, sincere flattery and all that. Who knows? I hope you like the whistle.
Feadoggie
Feadoggie, I was just posting at the exact same time as you, and you said everything I was saying!
Yes, contacting Ian would be your best bet to determine if it’s one of his. If not, Maurice Reviol can likely easily tell you if it’s an older O’Briain, and he usually responds to emails very quickly. If that doesn’t work, you could try Phil Hardy. That would rule a lot of things out.
The second thing I was going to say, is what Feadoggie mentions about other smaller makers selling things on ebay with resemblance to other makers. There is this Anthony Duncan guy who posts every couple of months advertising his whistles on facebook, thesession.org, or TradConnect. I’m extremely surprised he hasn’t posted here yet. I looked at his whistles, and some look almost identical to other ones. Some look like goldies, one of them looked like a metcalf, etc. That’s just one example. Also, there are a lot of Pakistani instruments that come up sometimes.
I have a mixed opinion on whether it’s a Lambe or not. There are some differences, but then is the matter of it perhaps being an early model. There are a lot of similarities too, though. If it is a Lambe he must have changed them a lot over the years. While I realise descriptions vary from person to person, perhaps moreso with my own analysis at times, but the description doesn’t sound even close. My Lambe, in my opinion, is very easy high notes with a very fragile low end, and quite a bit on the clear side, sounding nothing like the one on the video, but yes, recording method and the difference in what the player hears from a recording is a factor on that, too.