I’m now the proud owner of a Goldie Big O Low D which has an “O” stamped on the whistle after “Goldie.” The Big O is Colin’s name for his standardised version of the big hole whistle that Colin made a few handfuls of under the Overton name and that Davy Spillane plays, or played, his own tweaked version of. The holes ARE big, the second and fifth about 13mm, the rest about 11mm but what’s interesting is that they are not as difficult to cover as one would think. My fingers, while long, are rather narrow but since they sink into the holes, there is a sealing side-effect of this. And I speak as a beginner to the whistle with only six months experience and only just starting to master the piper’s grip!! I have one of Colin’s “easy blowers” and yet air requirements are very moderate, little more than my Optima and I have no problems with the D to E hole stretch; I don’t even consider it a stretch at all.
So what is it like to play? It is not as versatile as Colin’s standard Low D and if your interest is in playing faster reels then the standard is probably much better for that. The Big O loses the brightness and crispness of the standard. Instead it has a richer, mellower tone, a creaminess, a smoothness which is absolutely wonderful for slow airs and tunes. It appears to be slightly louder too. Half-holing notes is much easier and note bending more controllable. I am finding a little harder to play than a standard not always getting a good seal on all the holes but not nearly as hard as I would have imagined and, as a fan of airs and slow tunes by Davy Spillane and Marc Duff, I LOVE it. It’s WONDERFUL and, for me, worth the little extra effort!!!
Below is a photo comparing it with the standard Low D which I also love and will keep for those brighter faster pieces. But as far as I’m concerned I’ve found what I’ve been looking for in the Big O, to quote another C & F member, Loren, “the Ultimate Slow Air Whistle.”
Brigitte, no doubt you’ll read this so please feel free to correct me if I’ve given any wrong information here. My grateful thanks go to you and Colin for your patience in guiding a fumbling beginner.
I recently acquired one of these (it has “Overton” stamped on the back and the Goldie signature inside the barrel), and while it took a little while to get used to it I like it a lot. You’ll soon find you can play fast tunes as well. But what really stands out for me is the tone; it really doesn’t sound like any other instrument I know. A very rich, rather closed, meaty tone.
It also has a very smooth response between octaves, uncannily smooth and even compared to most whistles, with no evident point at which you suddenly have to push harder. Overall a fine instrument.
I like it a lot.
You’re lucky to find a Goldie Overton big hole. Brigitte Goldie reckons Colin only ever made perhaps twenty in all. I totally agree with you about the tone and playing. Since I’m a beginner and only getting used to it, I’m sure there’s much more to be had out of it, tone-wise. It has a far more melancholy tone to me, subdued which I love, anything but upbeat. You say closed. It sounds deeper too than the standard, like it wants to be a low C!!; maybe that’s what you call meaty. For me it’s just great for playing slow airs and trying to play something of Spillane’s moody slow tunes.
Out of curiosity, is yours what Colin calls an “easy blower” with a moderate amount of back pressure or does it require a lot of pressure to get a note? Apparently, Davy Spillane’s whistle has very minimal back pressure.
It’s nice to be part of a relatively small group of whistle owners. I wonder how many big hole Overtons are out there all together?
My understanding is that the original Overton design was like that, so there are probably lots of similar instruments around, but I may well be wrong, never having played one. I think Colin’s voicing is what really stands out - he is an excellent instrument maker. Mine is quite hard blowing, I think. I’m aiming to get a low B off him shortly, which would be the whistle equivalent of a base bansuri, but I’m thinking of getting a low backpressure version for that.
To be honest, I find the voice of the instrument rather less flexible than that of my KPro, but no doubt they vary from instrument to instrument.
You may be right about the original design but that was not what I understood.
I would certainly try an easy blower. In the last five years Colin has redesigned the head in a way that makes for greater efficiency in its use of air. Don’t ask me how but that’s what he said to me. I was going to go for a low D with medium back pressure because I didn’t want a whistle with high breath requirements but he encouraged me to try an easy blower. I was amazed how little air it uses. No more than my Kerry Optima which is reckoned to have low air requirements accessible for a beginner. But Colin’s easy blower still has higher back pressure than most other low D’s, I believe. He tells me most of his Uillean Pipe player customers like Declan Masterson & John McSherry are now using easy blowers.