I’ve become a total whistle addict. sigh
Due to moving and budget contstraints my fiance are getting one small gift for each other and we are picking them ourselves. Not real romantic, but we are both pretty happy about it.
To the point though…I am thinking of the Concert D Pennywhistle by Erik the Flutemaker. (http://www.eriktheflutemaker.com/?pageid=7402) The only post I can find in the forum about them is they smell nice. Could anyone give me their oppinion on this whistle?
Thank you much!
For just a tad bit more money (or less used) you could get a tunable Dixon whistle. There are also a ton of non-tunable whistles that are less as well including the Dixon non-tunable and the Jerry Freeman tweaked D.
Check your PM’s
You sure this one isn’t tunable? I’ve never had my hands on one but that looks like a Dixon mouthpiece married onto the bamboo tube.
Anyway, I sprung for one of Erik’s high-D sideblown (fife/flute style) bamboo flutes at a Ren fair a few years back and have had a lot of fun with it. I did pay extra for one that was a true D, in tune with itself, though admittedly not tunable. But heck, it’s possible to play an in-tune instrument out of tune with the wrong breath support.
That probably started me down the slippery slope to WhOA.
I’m very fond of Sandy’s Elfsong whistles ( http://www.elfsongwhistles.com ), by the way, and she treats her customers right.*
M
*Edited to add: this is not to imply that Erik doesn’t treat his customers well! It’s just that I’ve bought a bunch of whistles from Sandy and think she’s cute as a button.
Eric uses Sasoto mouth pieces (oh boy I know I spelled that wrong). They are glued to the bamboo. Not tunable. If you give him a call he will play one for you and you will have a better idea of how it sounds. I had one of his flutes in F and thought it was pretty good though the holes were huge. Anyway, nice guy.
Tom
I have one of his “C” whistles, and it is my favorite “C”. They are not tunable, but have great tone, and you might be able to get them with the neat patterns burned into the bamboo.
I asked for “starry night,” but none of them turned out to be truly tuned to “C,” so I ended up with a normal one.
Thanks for the info. I think I’ll give him a call this evening and order one.
I would second (or third) that Erik is very nice to deal with. I have one of his blues pennywhistles and it’s quite nice. The only caveat is that it tends to be very quiet in the first octave but easy to play and not TOO loud in the second octave.
I also have one of his double-whistles (two Susatos sort of bound together) and this is a very fun whistle to noodle around on.