I finally called up Colin and ordered a Goldie low D this morning. I’m getting the next to the softest blower, he called it a number two. He played that and his number 1, the softest blower, back to back many times. They both sounded great, amazing actually, and I wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart if he didn’t tell me which was which. They both had a strong low D note, and the high notes sounded great. High B wasn’t forced at all like it can be on many whistles. Colin is an amazing player and it was fun watching, on facetime, him play. Both of them are wonderful to deal with and generous with their time. I’m excited to get it next week, he had some ready to go as I called at the perfect time.
Congratulations! I’m sure you’ll love playing your whistle.
The “number one” and “number two” system is new to me.
My Goldie Low D was made when he used a three-tier “soft/medium/hard” system. MIne has “M” engraved inside the bell.
Then he began engraving the specific windway height in mm inside the bell.
I wonder what the “number one” and “number two” mean in mm. Is it a five-tier system?
In any case I’m guessing I would have gone with the same one you went with.
I have a “medium” head and a “soft” head that I can interchange on my Goldie Low D. I love them both, and it’s likely that a head in between those two would be ideal for me.
I’m unsure what the windway was in mm. He had a bunch of low D’s he recently completed on hand. The medium blower he played was different in tone, but the two soft blowers sounded alike. As he went back and forth between them I slightly preferred the next sofest one. Colin said he thought it had a slightly fatter tone, which may have influenced what I heard. I don’t know if the numbering system was new or just a method to clarify to me which one he was playing. He went back and forth at least eight times, saying here’s #1, now here’s #2. I was amazed how solid the low D note was and how sweet and unforced the highest notes were. His excellent playing is a part of it, but it was obvious how well they played and sounded. I should get it on Tuesday!
Yes exactly, when I compare my “soft” to “medium” heads the “soft” is more musical overall, with easier high notes and fatter low notes, and more facility switching between octaves.
After playing the “soft” for a few days, when I return to the “medium” it seems stiff.
So the “soft” is clearly the better whistle, yes? But the “medium” is more air-efficient, allowing longer uninterrupted phrases to be played, which is very nice for airs.
I would like to try one right down the middle. It might be the ideal compromise for me.
That being said, the “soft” while requiring more air to be sent through the whistle than a Goldie “medium” is still more air-efficient than many if not most non-Goldie Low D’s.
My Goldie softblower low D had an amazingly easy high end. Was probobly my favorite thing about it. At the same time was also a reason I sold it. I decided to sell it when after a month of trying to only play my Goldie to adjust to it, I realized that my ability to play my other whistles got worse haha. Which consist of burkes, Reyburns, and MK’s. which dont have nearly as easy a high end as the Goldie. My entire collection is all whistles picked to play similarly. So the Goldie while being excellent, definitely plays differently than all my others. I had some other reasons I preferred my MK but it was a close fight. The Goldie definitely wins in a lot of ways. Its first octave tone is perfection. I expect you will really enjoy yours when it comes in.
That’s interesting and it’s something I never did, compare my Goldie Low D with the soft-blower head against those other makes, all of which I owned at one point or another.
The Low D that was closest to my Goldie with the soft-blowing head was the Lofgren. They played very much alike with the easy high notes, powerful Bottom D, and greater air consumption. I didn’t own both at the same time, but I think the Goldie soft-blower would be more efficient than the Lofgren, which took nearly as much air as the Burke Pro Viper (probably the least-efficient Low D I’ve played).
About Burke vs MK, my Burke Low D played differently in every way to the MK Low Ds I owned, the Burke with stiff high notes and the MKs with sweet high notes, the Burke with down-the-middle octave tuning and the MKs with sharp 2nd octaves, the Burke require huge quantities of air and the MKs being quite efficient, the Burke with an ungainly fat tube and widely-spaced upper-hand holes and the MKs quite ergonomic, the Burke with a powerful Bottom D and the MKs with a fluffy ones.
About Reyburn Low Ds I owned and tried several, and they varied quite a bit, so I wouldn’t be able to say “Reyburns play like ______”.
Me too!
Mostly chosen to play similarly, or in a couple cases modified to play similarly. I don’t have any whistles with stiff high notes, for example, and all have similar octave relationships.
I’ve been playing MK low D’s for a few years. I love them. I play whistle solo for my personal enjoyment, and tone, providing the whistle plays well, is my first consideration. I won’t play an instrument if the tone doesn’t inspire me. The Pro is my primary whistle, but I may very slightly prefer the tone of the Kelpie on some days. It’s very slightly purer. BTW, I just checked the tuning and thenPro is excellent. With the low D dead on, the middle D is slightly sharp, and backing off just a bit brings it into tune. The C sharp before it is somewhat flat, so that needs to be pushed. Every other note is close. I don’t notice any of this when playing. The Kelpie is less in tune, but I also don’t notice while playing. I can’t imagine I’ll ever get rid of my MK’s. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when I’ve played the Goldie for a while, it’s possible it will reset what I expect from a low D?
Currently, I just own the MK’s and two Killarney’s I never play. I’m going to sell the high whistles when I get around to it. It’s the low whistles I love. I may get an F in the future, and possibly a low C, Goldie or MK.
Burkes and MK’s definitely play differently. but my burke A isnt that far off. My burke low F I had, was way different, being super open playing. The burke A has a much shorter windway so the backpressure is similar to MK’s. Its a bit more ‘stiff’ in the high end and the tuning curve is the staple burke tuning curve, of practically plays itself in tune. Where MK’s to me have been slightly more ‘trad’ feeling tuning.
Reyburns the only thing consistent is the tuning. My low D is air efficient but very hard blowing. My low G is a tiny bore, with an open windway. Overblows easily, 0 backpressure. The low F I tried was open liek the G and as hard blowign as the d. so insane air use, which I didn’t like. But they all had the best tuning of any whistle I’ve played (in my opinion). Its like a better burke tuning.
My thing on having whistles that play ‘similarly’ is that while they are all still different, the change isnt too extreme. So its an easy adjustment. I can easily go from playing my MK low F to my Burke A. or from my Mk to Reyburn low D. One takes more push but otherwise isnt too different. But I cant just pick up and play my Gen Bb thats in a container under my bed. My tuning will be way off, because the tuning feels way different. so with the goldie, it had a really easy second octave. but then I tried to paly my burke and I was underblowing constantly, so it just felt weird.
Mk’s are just all around solid whistles. They arent my favorite in every department. but they strike an amazing balance. To me the tuning on them is definately a bit worse than Burkes and Reyburns, which feel hard to play out of tune. My Mk’s I especially underblow the ooo ooo note, which feels sharper on my Burkes and Reyburns. But its close enough and I still like the tuning more than every other makers I’ve played. And the MK’s generally have a better balance of push, air use, etc than the burkes and Reyburns.
I wish there was a Reyburn low C. I’ve actually asked him and he said his lathe isnt long enough to do a low C haha… I have a custom C# and I like it a bit more than the low d. So the low C would be amazing. I may pick up an MK low C but Idk if it will be a bit too soft for me. so on that note if you like the Goldie low D it could be best to get a Goldie low C or get a low C body to use with the headpiece you already have.
I’d like to add, for additional anectodal information, that my Burke G doesn’t require more air than my MK pro G did. In fact, I find myself having less of a struggle with my Burke, as the MK required more air on the highs that they were harder to sustain. I was expecting it to be a challenge as I’ve read people say, as in this thread, that burkes require huge amounts of air, but found that was not the case with mine. It’s always possible something changed for one or both of these makers at some point, but I sold off the MK due to the air requirement price vs the Burke.
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This is good to know. I’ve always wondered if the burke G had a big air use jump or if it was more similar to the A. Based on what you said, it seems toi be similar to the A. Which really isnt that bad on air use. I think its still definitely more than my gen Bb, its a fairly wide windway. but its not tall and I’ve never had air use issues. Low F and lower, the air use becomes massive. Which is really sad, because honestly i’d probobly have a ton of burkes if the windway height stayed the same and they only got wider. Low F is wider and 2-3x as tall as the A, so its like blowing through ha giant straw vs a little one. My burke low f used noticeably more air than my MK low D.
My view on air use is it doesnt matter until it becomes an issue and you have to change your playing to breathe more. So ones like the burke A, it doesnt matter if it uses a lot of air for an A or not. Because it isnt enough to be problematic.
Hi, just to avoid confusion. When I’ve ordered from Colin on the phone, and I’ve done so several times the last year, he always gives numbers to the whistles he plays for me. The way I understand it, and I’m 99% sure I’m right, the numbers he gives the whistles has nothing to do with the height of the windway. It’s just a way of keeping track of the order of the whistles. So, he’ll play one, giving it the number one. Plays a second one,giving it the number two, and a third one, giving it the number three etc. Then, he’ll go back to number one, number two etc. It’s just an easy way of keeping track of the different whistles you’re choosing between 
On a sidenote, I have two low D’s from him at the moment. A medium hard 0,85, and a medium soft, 0,95. Both excelent players!! But I do prefer the 0,95. The second octav is easier to reach, and the general feel of the back pressure just feels better to me
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Mine is a .97. After playing my MK it feels like a hard blower, by comparison. I have a difficult time even imagining what his hard blowers are like. I’m still much better on the MK. The MK is very easy to get a consistent hole seal, more so than all the other low D’s I’ve played. It feels so ergonomic to me. It also is very responsive and articulations effortlessly pop out. The Goldie is the only other low D I’ve played that is it’s equal with this. The big playing advantage of the MK, for me, is that it’s more resistant to clogging, significantly so. The MK is my favorite sounding low D, I love the tone, but the Goldie, while completely different, is close. Both sound great. It will be interesting to see if my opinion changes by the new year, but so far the MK is still my favorite and my go to whistle. Surprisingly, I don’t think one is tuned any better than the other, they both have unimportant minor quirks. My MK’s middle d is a bit sharp, but it’s easy to bring it into perfect tune by blowing softer. Both are more than good enough in tune for me.
To me the turning point where I decided to sell my Goldie was when I decided that if anyone asked me to play for them, I’d always go get my MK. That said, I also wanted the money haha. If you dont need the money its worth having both still because the Goldie does just sound really cool and is always worth having in your collection. I dont think I had hole coverage issues, but there was something about it where I can play the MK so much more cleanly. I’ve actually found some videos on youtube of players much better than me having the same minor issues on Goldies. They aren’t that noticeable but if you look for them you can usually hear them. And thats excluding the moisture issues that I constantly had, hopefully you have less moisture issues than I did.
I eventually sell musical instruments if I’m not going to play them. I have a couple of fiddles I’m going to sell because I’m not going to play fiddle anymore. If I get to that point with a whistle I’ll sell it.
Interesting. I was playing a Burke Low D for a few years, then switched to MK Low Ds for a few years, and now have switched to a Goldie Low D.
Over that span I’ve performed many of the same pieces with the same group and not had any trouble switching.
For me, either a Low D is a professional-level whistle or it isn’t, and all three of those are.
Now this has peaked my interest! Having played MK Low Ds professionally for a few years, and now a Goldie Low D, I would like to find out more about what factor is it that you’re talking about.
Could you post some YouTube clips that demonstrate what you mean?
I’m eleven days in with the goldie, and today was the first time I felt frustrated with it. I’ve been playing my MK for twenty to thirty minutes, then switching to the Goldie for another thirty or so minutes. After fifteen or twenty minutes I put the Goldie down amd went back to the MK. It’s still much more fun to play the MK, and the result is so much better. I will give it a while longer amd attempt to not get frustrated.
Sure, I have one in mind especially that I found the other day. He’s an excellent player, and the recording is good. But its completely plagued with these little sharp sounds between notes. some people wont notice or hear them, but to me it drives me nuts. I dont get these sounds with my MK. My MK low F can make them but its to a much more minimal degree that I dont worry about them.
Oh do you mean the sort of high frequency metallic chiff that occurs at the very start of the note? Some folks are certainly divided on how they get on with that kind of chiff. In some context i dont mind it and indeed it’s very useful for a pieces tonal character, but I also find myself being overloaded by such sounds if I think about it for too long. I don’t mind a ‘dry’ or ‘windy’ chiff quite as much, personally.
Great discussion.
In reference to “sharp sounds between notes”, would it be notes that are being cut upon attack that you’re hearing? Or is it something quite different?
Ya I think so. There’s different tiers of it. Because you can poorly cover a hole and get a bad sharp squeak. But you can also get part of that sharp squeak just by cutting a note, cuttings with the wrong hole, or in cases liek this, even just blowing a note at the start. So at what point is it an issue and what point is it fine? I’m not sure. But the sound bugs me because I associate it with being a bad thing I’m supposed to not do (like when it happens from leaking or poor fingering). But when it happens a little just from starting a note, maybe its an intended characteristic.
I think my reply right above this one to Roland pseudo answers this. But the video I linked shows the ‘sharp sounds’ when they aren’t extreme. They can be on cuts, but they can also just be from sounding a note, or some finger transitions. Where right as the note sounds, it lets out this sharp sound, just for a small fraction of a second. But if you listen for it, its there. And to me is really unpleasant, especially once I notice it. and because that, I have a hard time liking any whistle that makes these sounds that I cant easily avoid them. Because a lot of the time the ‘bad versions’ of this sound are caused by user error. Like leaking a hole, or poor finger technique getting a sharp sound during a transition. So if I’m getting these sounds in any way, to me my playing feels bad. But in videos liek the one I linked, his playing isn’t bad. but he’s still getting the sounds, just to a lesser degree. Which makes me want to just play a whistle I wont get them at all.
This topic though does make me think that a lot more people get these sounds than I thought, and that they just don’t see them as a problem.