I thought I would take a few moments to pass on my very positive dealings with Daniel McGinley of Domnahl na Gruen Whistlecraft in Scotland.
I have been playing the high whistle for a couple of years and very recently decided to take the plunge into the world of low whistles. After a bit of homework I ended up making an E-Bay purchase at a very reasonable price from Domnahl na Gruen. As I have relatively small hands I traded e-mails with Daniel first, and found his advice extremely helpful. The whistle arrived and I was instantly thrilled with it, although I did have problems with some fingering and particularly hitting the bell note. I percevered hoping the problems would go with practice, and continued to recieve helpful advise from Daniel. Six weeks on and my problems still persisted. Completely unprompted, Daniel then sent me an alternative whistle to try. Amazing, all problems instantly eliminated ! The replacement whistle is fantastic, and all supplied at no extra cost. All I have to do is return the previous whistle.
Daniel is handmaking these wonderful whistles himself, and I thought his excellent product and service needed an airing, highly recommended. Search Domnahl na Gruen Whistlecraft for his website
I’m awaiting a Low D from Daniel also, untill now every mail I sent him , he’s allways very helpfull. I think he must be just a unique person.
Aaaaah… the waiting takes long…
I am sure the whistle will arrve promptly, I am still thrilled with mine. Your comments about Daniel are correct, he loves whistles and his service is second to none. Good luck
I received Daniels whistle today, very nice whistle; tough it jumps rather quick in the high octave.
It also has a large windway as compared with my Alba low D.
I don’t remember if it was this thread or another that sent me to e-bay to find the Domnahl na Gruen whistles for sale, but a couple of weeks ago I did just that and it arrived today. It’s terrific. I do have one question: when I narrow or widen the windway by moving the outer collar, how is that supposed to effect the sound? Should it make it louder or softer? I’m still getting used to it, but I really like the sound. Thanks for the reference.
Hopefully this thread is still alive enough for me to offer my appreciation to Daniel (Domnahl) . I’ve been playing one of his adjustable low C’s for the past week and it’s just lovely. My neighbors have asked me to play more!
A friend is letting me borrow his low D made by Daniel. If anyone can advise on setting up the adjustable fipple and tips for getting the best sound out of it is appreciated. The windway looks very short to my eye, and I have to blow very gently to sound the lower octave. It doesn’t feel like I can push it much at all to try and get volume - very soft. I’m sure a lot of it is I am not used to it, but advice appreciated.
I’ve been curious about these whistles too. Especially for the price. There was another thread where a couple of people said they had trouble getting a good sound out of it or didn’t care for the sound of it but the soundclip on his site sounds good to me.
My question would be…if someone can get the sound that made that sound clip out of this whistle, can anyone with proper technique and practice?
I guess it depends what you mean by “this” whistle. The sound clip is great, his whistles look very nice and are competitively priced, but as with any hand-crafted instrument, I suspect that each whistle will have its own characteristics. That’s part of the appeal.
(I’ve not had the privilege of playing one of these yet.)
Even with the mass-produced cheapies there seems to be a massive variation in the tone achieved by different experienced players, so maybe it’s possible to make any whistle sound good, it’s just whether the learning curve is too long and shallow.
There are clearly “good techniques” that work on particular whistles and “bad techniques” that won’t work on any whistle, but maybe there are a few plain old “techniques” that work with particular whistles.
My Domnahl low D also can’t be blown too hard in the lowest notes, but the high register is easy and sweet. When I first got it, I was troubled, bcause it was hard not to overblow it into the second octave. But Daniel was very responsive. you can adjust this a little by moving the fipple cover, thought there’s a tradeoff–the stronger the low, the less strong the high. he gave me a DIY fix, but I didn’t fully understand and didn’t want to ruin the whistle. He offered to send a replacement, which was nice of him. But ultimately I decided I like the very quiet blow. It’s very different from say my Overton or Howard, but for nice quiet playing and breath control quite lovely. I wouldn’t want it to be my only low D and probably couldn’t be played in a loud environment, but for practicing in my wife’s closet late in the evening so as not to bother the neighbors (or my wife), it’s good. And he is very nice and responsive, in my experience.
Hello!
I’m relatively new to lows (play a little more than a year), and thinking of getting one of a Daniel’s whistles. This was the only thread I found about them.
Are they suitable for beginers?
As for now, I have only a Dixon Polymer Low D. I quite like it, but want to move a little further in a world of lows
I’ve also tried a Cheiftain V3(my friend owns one). It was rather good for me, and i cant decide between it and a Domnahl one. Domnahl is cheaper and fully handmade…
I wonder if anyone knows which one is louder and easier to play?
…of the two I’d go for the V3 no question.
I’ve played both and and the V3 is by far the better whistle.
You say ‘it was rather good for me’
what’s wrong with getting a good instrument as your learning?
I’ve no debate with the advice you’ve received here but I’d like to add my experience since I own three of Domhahl’s (Daniel’s) whistles. I have enjoyed a Low D, Low F, and High D for almost three years now. I have not played a V3 so I can’t comment on that. I find that both the Low D and Low F are very fine instruments with a solid bell note and sweet high’s if you slide the mouthpiece hood and fipple back about .5mm past where they would be flush with the end of the whistle. It is a hardly noticeable change but makes a big difference with the low range. This is one of the main advantages with these whistles, the tone can be customized to be breathy or clean and one can favor the high range of low as required.
They are very light-weight aluminum tubes so they are very resonant and must be warm before playing.
I like these instruments very much and play them often. They are a bargain as well.
I’m a fan of moving the fipple to suit the player’s preference. Have you noticed any effect on the tuning? Moving the fipple away from the lip (increasing the length of the window) raises the pitch of all notes slightly, but I don’t think the change is enough to be noticeable.
I couldn’t hear any difference in pitch. But just now I checked it against my Korg tuner and can’t see a difference there either. I had been practicing with my Burke Composite Low D, which I love, but after playing this one for a bit to warm it up, I was reminded that this is still a really nice inexpensive whistle. If I didn’t have the Burke, I’d be okay playing Domnahl’s whistle. I’m no pro but this is a lot nicer instrument than a few other Low D’s that I’ve tried. I’ll repeat, that you can’t go wrong for the money.
If you have twice as much to spend you can do better. If you can’t spend twice as much, I’ll wager you can’t do better. YMMV
I have a V3 in other keys and in D a couple of Phil’s whistles. Very different from the Domnahl, which (at least mine, and it sounds like some others’ too) is a quiet instrument (though I suspect he could make you a loud one), where the V3 is pretty powerful. Another one to consider if you want “quiet” is Phil’s new Optima. It’s a great low D, I’d say easier to play than his other models or the Domnahl, and quite reasonably priced. It’s very easy to play throughout its range, not as quiet as (my) Domnahl by any means, but not loud, very balanced. I wish I’d had it for a first low D.
Best,
Jaydoc
As a totally beginner on the Low D, and after reading all the good things here on the forum about quality, price, etc… I ordered a Domnahl Low D whistle from Daniel. Got very fast answers to my questions. To me, Daniel seems to be a really nice guy.
But now, the part I hate most… Waiting… Waiting for it to arrive…!!!
. I’ve been playing one of his adjustable low C’s for the past week and it’s just lovely. My neighbors have asked me to play more!