Hello,
I’d like to buy a quiet whistle soon, because I intend on practicing late, and have a better “social life” the evenings! I askd the question before, but it’s been hard to find an accurate answer. Is the Hoover really the quietest whistle available? Is it really clogging all the time? Can someone sleep in another room, and still not be awaken by the whistle? Does anyone have a recording?
I’ve had the opportunity to try out a PVC D Hoover for the last few days. The whistle I’ve been playing isn’t very cloggy, but requires very little breath. I had to play around with it for a couple hours before I could breathe light enough to hit the bell note consistently. That said, the whistle’s not very ‘quiet’..probably 2/3 the volume of a sweettone..but the sound doesn’t seem to carry/penetrate. At the local session, I could hear my sweetone easily, but couldn’t hear the Hoover at all. However, when all was quiet, a 2nd party thought they sounded the same in terms of volume. Note that I didn’t bother to tune-up any of the tuneable instruments (weasel/laughing whistle).
You can hear a short comparative clip between the Hoover PVC, the Laughing Whistle, the Silkstone PVC, and the Thin Weasel here:
http://www.tinwhistler.com/music/chiffandfipple/hoover_laughing_silkstone_weasel.mp3
of the 4, the quietest is the hoover, going up in volume to the weasel. However, I don’t think that this sound clip can really capture the penetrative power of the weasel (which is awesome), nor does it really capture how quickly the hoover gets washed out in background noise.
Greg
The Hoover narrow bore is very very very quiet, but it takes new breathe control to get the low F sharp, E and D
Joe
Quiet enough to safely say that the Hoover brass is only a solo instrument. The narrow bore is the quietest. I can play in the bedroom without the door closed and my kids complaining now. That quiet!
Ok, we’ve established that it is very quiet. To the extent that it can be heard, the tone is very pure and does not have any shrillness or harshness. So if someone can hear it, they’re not likely to complain.
I’d say go for it, I’m happy with mine.
jb
My CPVC hoover D is actually fairly strong–at least, it’s a bit louder than my Clarke D. The tone is so pure, with very little breathiness, that it perhaps seems louder than it is for solo work. As for it’s performance in a session, I’d imagine it would stand up well, but really can’t say.
I hear the narrow bore brass whistles are VERY quiet. My Hoover arrowshaft whistle certainly is!
Enjoy!
Tom
I have a Burke tunable medium/narrow bore regular-d composite. This is my quietest whistle. It is easy to play in both octaves, never clogs, small volume differential between octaves, and has a very smooth tone. I’ve played a hoover, which may be a little quiter; however, it was harder to play, especially the bell tone. I still prefer the Burke, for it balanced tone.
Not to complicate your choices, but hoping to help you further…
Enjoy Your Music,
Lee Marsh
[ This Message was edited by: LeeMarsh on 2001-09-09 13:26 ]
As the girlfriend of a whistle player, I can attest to the fact that the Hoover narrow bore whistle is both astonishingly quiet and lovely to hear. I don’t mind the louder whistles (of which we have several) but for daily practice in a shared space the Hoover beats everything else I have heard.
Another thing, I also play the whistle, though not as often as my boyfriend does. I have played his narrow bore Hoover many times and have never had a problem with it clogging up with condensation (and we live in Houston, TX, the city that never heard of evaporation).
I play a brass narrow bore D late at night. It cannot be heard two rooms away with the TV off and the doors open. It is the only whistle I have which has never woken my insomniac wife up - even the quiet Parkhurst and McHaffie whistles aren’t THAT quiet.
I got my Hoover Narrow Bore D a while ago, and am very happy with it. As is said in the other posts, it is very quiet, pure and sweet in tone.
When I want to practice really late I always take the Hoover now. I found that it is the quietest whistle to play, and it is the ‘loudest’ whistle when I play in ‘whisper mode’ (blowing over the windway). Compared to the whistles with plastic mouthpieces you get much more tone when blowing over the windway.
Narrow bore brass whistles generally are quiet like you said.
I built a narrow bore brass whistle once, it was so quiet that I wound up giving it away to someone looking for a quiet whistle.
When I logged on here..I was actually playing the Fisher’s Hornpipe on my PVC Hoover…in an 8x8 space…with dearly beloved watching television. Now that’s quiet…either that or he’s learned to tune out the whistle like he does me…hmmmmm…do you s’pose? LOL Gm