Having gotten confirmation that Uncles Sam and Arnold were, indeed, planning to deposit withheld $$$ in my account within the week, I figured I’d order before someone could come a long and put sugar in my gas tank or something like that. Seems like whenever I plan to buy something nice lately, something happens that needs the money more urgently, so I decided to make the whistle a fait accompli
So, with luck, I’ll have the whistle for May Day. I’m glad…I like playing a wooden instrument for Morris, but I don’t want to subject my Busman to being carried around in all weathers, riding in the car and dodging children with big sticks.
I was thinking about doing the same thing. I’ve looked at the Sweetheart Professional model for a while now, but I’m still waiting for my “d” Water Weasel to come in the mail. If I like it I may get a Thin Weasel for my first wooden whistle. Either way, once I start getting into increasingly expensive whistles I’m going to have to start practicing more to justify the expense. Or I might just avoid telling my non-musician friends how much I actually pay for this stuff. When your new whistle shows up, feel free to tell me what you think of it, I might just get one myself.
The Sweet is a bargain for the price. If you like loud whistles, you’ll love it. But beware of renny types asking where you got the pretty little recorder!
The Water/Thin weasels are my favourite whistles, though. Not the loudest or the easiest to play, but so expressive!
The Water/Thin weasels are my favourite whistles, though. Not the loudest or the easiest to play, but so expressive!"
I’m actually glad to hear that. My intention was to get something pretty loud and somewhat clear. I’m not so much into the chiff being prominent, or having a breathy tone. Do you have any experience with the wooden Thin Weasels?
HEY! I’m a “Renny Type”, and I, of all people, would certainly know the difference… uh… well… I mean, reco##ders are made of some kind of fruitwood, aren’t they… ??
(Glauber, yer a dirty dog, yer are! )
Cheers,
Bill Whedon
Serpent Music
theotherleadingbrand…I’ll surely post what I think of it when I get it. My first wooden whistle was my Busman, and I love it dearly…it’s the most expressive whistle I own. If you’re looking for a wooden whistle, I would highly recommend checking out Paul’s site (http://www.busmanwhistles.com/)…his whistles are works of art, sound wonderful, and are a real bargain compared to what most handmade whistles cost. You couldn’t get mine away from me for anything!
The Sweetheart I’m getting is the birch laminate one…it’s got the look of wood (well, it IS wood, actually, but laminated wood), but it’s much less delicate, from what I understand. This new whistle is going to have to do quite a bit of traveling, (particularly on May Day, when we have about five venues), and will have to be subjected to whatever weather we may encounter (well, within reason…I’m not likely to let it get rained on or to leave it in a sunny window, but you know what I mean!).
A friend of mine who’s a much better whistler than i, has a boxwood TW and i’ve had a chance to play it side by side with my WW a few times. It’s hard to tell the difference on the sound; that TW had considerable more “backpressure” on the second octave than my WW, and that made it a little easier to control than the WW. The TW may have been a tad louder too, but it’s basically the same sound. Not breathy at all, by the way.
Forget I mentioned it.