I’d like more information on whistles below Low D.
What is available?
Are the wind requirements daunting?
Are they readily playable by Low D players?
Quanto costo?
Many makers make low-C’s as well as -D’s. I know that Overtons are available down to low-low-G and Jubilees down to LLA. And Mike Burke has experimented with some huge whistles, I don’t know how successfully.
I have low-D and -C by Burke, and they’re entirely different beasts. The difference between high-D and -C whistles is a little more than an inch, and you don’t really notice it. OTOH, with low whistles it’s almost three inches. The holes are bigger and farther apart, but, most importantly, your lower hand needs to be about two inches farther from your mouth. So your hand is at a funny angle. I have no problem with any low-D I’ve played, but I just don’t have much stamina with a C. YMMV.
If you’re interested, Thom has an Overton low-low-G on sale at the Whistle Shop.
I have two low C. Both are big bores (1in. 1/8 outside diameter).
You won’t read a review, here, just my story of frustration and success. Accordingly, it’s not even orderly : I write as I’d tell it.
One is an Overton, and Colin Goldie said this one was particularly easy to play. And boy, the man knows his art!
This big C has the usual Overton qualities, and the extra large bore seems to make the Overton sound even more characteristic. Note the blade alone is 18.5 mm wide (almost 3/4 in!).
Now I’m a beginner and it gives me a real problem of right hand finger stretch–of course with piper’s grip. I have big hands enough (need big glove size for my motorcycling) but it is big palms, with rather short and bony fingers.
So I need a conscious effort to stretch my right hand, and I constantly miss the correct sealing of one or the other hole.
I felt extremely frustrated by this C, despairing in my ability to ever master a low-below-low. I’ve heard this instrument played by other players and it is superb. But I can hardly manage it, after two months of keeping on trying. I even considered how I could get the bottom hole keyed.
Now I have another big C, a recent Alba.
A little difference in finger stretch makes the whole difference; same size holes, same pattern with F and E holes pretty close together, and D far down, but the right hand stretch is 75 mm (center-to-center) as opposed to 83 mm. Well, that’s 10% : I could immediately play this C just as easily as my low D’s.
For comparison with my Low D’s, the right hand stretch on my Kerry Pro measures the same 75 mm, just under 3 in., a Grinter I see here 77.5, and the Alba 70.5 mm.
The Alba C has a different sound from the Overton for sure. Less breathy as my early Alba Low D, but fortunately (to my ears) not “pure” sounding. On the other hand, the chiff is extremely low. I regret I never played a Burke to compare. So I’ll say it’s as low as I ever heard on a low whistle.
Breath requirements are moderate; the second octave being easily hit, it is not a problem. Accordingly, it’s a rather free blower (little back pressure compared to the Overton), but I tend to like this for airs and songs.
The sound is not as loud, but with an exceptional low end. The C is solid as an organ-pipe, very stable, with no control needed to keep it even and eliminate unwanted wobble or vibrato; more importantly, the two next notes don’t loose volume or character as they systematically tend to do on my other low whistles. All in all, the low end is what makes the sound of this whistles outstanding compared to any other low whistle (C or D) I’ve played.
The strange point, given all this, is the Alba is a full inch shorter than the Overton. And yes both are non-tuneable, and both perfectly in tune as checked against a Korg meter. Checking this out, I found there’s a bore perturbation (restriction) in the Alba which seems to have given it the compactness of conical whistles. I maybe wrong here, but the low C and D sounds seem to confirm it…
To-day this Alba C is my favorite whistle… on par with my new cocobolo low D. But this just came for Christmas, so we’ll see.
I might in the future get this C converted at Alba’s to become tuneable… when I’m ready to buy an extra tube in Bb. I ponder, because of my recent stretch errments and frustrations 