Humphrey Stealth -- Brief Review

Whistle
1

I’ve had my Humphrey high D with the new “Stealth” head for eleven days now. I’ve been playing it a lot and comparing it with my other high Ds.

On opening the package from Gary, my first two impressions were:

  1. Boy! It’s really light!

  2. Boy! It’s really pretty!

Sure enough, at 37.4 grams, it’s my lightest whistle, beating out my Whitecap with brass tube by exactly one gram.

The head is flat black (Delrin), and the brass tube also has a slightly flat look, due to a slight “brushed” texture running around the tube. You can look at [u]the photos on Gary’s site[/u], but they don’t quite capture how classy this whistle looks in person.

Superficially, it looks a lot like a Generation, Feadog, or Oak brass high D (this being the point of the “Stealth” designation), but it is just a much nicer looking whistle–at least for my taste.

The Stealth is, as expected, perfectly in tune with itself. (I went with standard tuning.) It moves easily between octaves and goes up to second-octave C# without getting too piercing.

Having never hung out with other whistlers enough to get a good taste of what is considered the “traditional” sound, I thought I’d compare it to all of my other high Ds. This was probably a mistake. It turns out that all of my whistles with 1/2" tubes, as well as a couple of others, have very similar sounds. Although each one is distinctive, the differences are too subtle for me to say anything meaningful about. I just don’t have the vocabulary to do that. It’s worse than trying to compare two espresso blends.

So, I’ll just say that the tone of the Stealth high D is very pleasing. I’d characterize it as slightly complex, not raspy or breathy. One good point that has become important to me is that every note has the same basic quality as every other note. This means that I never hit a note that stands out from the flow more than it should.

I have a number of whistles–some fairly expensive–that have one or two inconsistent notes. These are normally the high D and/or high E. They tend to be a bit raspier than the rest of the notes, so they really stand out in a melody–especially if the raspy note is the last one in a phrase. I’m not sure how much they stand out to listeners, but to me they sound rather jarring. The Humphrey Stealth, however, is completely consistent in tone throughout both octaves.

So, I’d say that you really can’t go wrong with this whistle.

(One oddity that I noticed involves how this whistle tarnishes. I have four other brass whistles, all very shiny, that tarnish all over, except where my fingers touch while playing. The Stealth started out by tarnishing only where my fingers hit, which is more like what I’ve seen with my two nickle whistles. Eventually the rest of the barrel began to darken, resulting in a very even patina, compared to the others. However, I broke down tonight and polished all five. I’m just not a big patina fan. The Stealth is too pretty to leave it dark, and the brushed texture keeps it from being too shiny, anyhow.)

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Good review Mike!
I must say that you seem as pleased with your Humphrey whistle as I am of mine (which I received last month).
You didn’t mention whether it was the ‘Equal’ or ‘Just’ intoned version that you got.
I was going to go for ‘Just’,but decided to go the whole hog and get both types of intonation-and in Eb too!
Gary is certainly producing some very fine whistles-I’d recommend them unreservedly.

3

Could you guys explain the difference between “equal” and “just” intonation and why one might choose one over the other?

I think it is maybe what is called tempering in piano tuning but I don’t really know much about that either.

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A great review!

On the intonation question “just” verses “equal”–basically there is a problem with the musical scale which has been recognized at least since the days of the ancient Greek philosopher/mathmetician Pythagoreus, and different methods of tuning are different ways of dealing with that problem.

If you start at C, and start tuning around the circle of fifths, tuning each fifth to be a “perfect” (i.e. absolutely open and beatless) fifth, when you make your way back around the scale to B# (which is enharmonic to C) you find that B# and C aren’t the same note anymore; in the key you just finished tuning justly, you are perfectly in tune, but in the original key you started from (C) you are now grossly out of tune.

That difference between B# and C is the “Pythagorean comma,” and different tuning mechanisms deal with how you do (or don’t) spread that difference around over the scale.

If you hold the tonic note (which would be “D” for a whistle) and tune every other note of the scale to sound as good as it can against that note, with perfectly open and beatless octaves, fifths, fourths, and thirds, you’ve produced “just” intonation. It’ll sound fantastically good in its home key of D, and in the surrounding keys of A and G it’ll be very good as well…but don’t try to play in, say, E-flat. On a whistle it doesn’t matter–you couldn’t play well in that key if you wanted to because you’d be half-holing so many of the notes. But on a piano it matters, or even on a keyed flute.

So the opposite approach is to make every interval of every key intentionally and purposefully a bit out of tune, the same amount in every key. This is called “equal temper” and means that, like a modern piano, you will sound equally good, no matter what key you are playing in. But the fifth is now out of tune, and the third is extremely sharp, so that its “perfect” nature is completely gone. This is how the modern orchestral flute is tuned, as well.

These aren’t the only possibilities, but they are the two most common, because when you sing or play a fiddle by yourself, you’re playing will tend to be just, and of course everyone’s ear is very used to hearing music played on modern instruments where they are tuned with equal temper. It doesn’t make us flinch the way it did in say, J.S. Bach’s time, when it was a new and somewhat controversial idea.

You can also make most keys be usable and try to stuff all your bad intervals into one horrible key you never play in, called the “wolf.” An example of this is quarter-comma-mean tuning.

There are many other tunings. If you are curious, a google search will bring up more info than you ever wanted to know.

–James

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But the fifth is now out of tune, and the third is extremely sharp, so that its “perfect” nature is completely gone. This is how the modern orchestral flute is tuned, as well.

There must be a link to the maths on that. Frequencies? How many cents out ? :confused:

Brian

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Thank you peeplj. That was a very good explanation for someone like me who is just learning about these things.

Since “just” intonation would give the best result on my whistle, considering the keys I will play in, is the only reason to have “equal” intonation then that one might be playing with others whose instruments are tuned to “equal” intonation?

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Yes, a whistle tuned to just temperament will sound out of tune when accompanied by an instrument tuned to the modern standard; equal temperament… and it will probably also sound out of tune to your ear until you get used to it.
I always recommend equal temperament for those two reasons, but lots of people prefer just temperament in spite of the incompatibility with most modern instruments.
On a just temperament D whistle, F#, B and C# are noticeably flat compared to equal temperament.

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Here’s more about the math side of the thing:

http://www.musicmasterworks.com/WhereMathMeetsMusic.html

I hope it helps.

–James

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Irish pipes use just intonation. Conflict then is possible with pianos, accordion, guitars, etc - depending on their tuning.

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Jerry Freeman has posted the table of tuning just vs equal several times to other threads discussing the same.
To my ear just intonation sounds sweeter than equal. both have their uses depending on context but when on my own I would go forthe tuning leaning towards just intonation.
Sean Potts when playing my just intonation Humphrey said it was dead right compared to modern expensive whistles ‘they all have their F way too sharp’.

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You know, just recently I heard a recording of a tune played on UP and I kept thinking it sounded strange—there was no reason to think the player was other than excellent. I wonder if the tuning is what sort of threw me. But I listened to a tune by another piper and I didn’t think that one sounded odd. Would all UP players use “just” tuning? I’ll look up Jerry’s posts. I’m going to see if I can hear some samples of scales or something to see if I can hear the difference.

13

But he sent his own back to trade for an equal temperament whistle… he couldn’t blow the second octave B and C# into tune with the other instruments he was playing along with.
I sent him a new D whistle with both just and equal temperament tubes, and he told me he preferred the equal temperament tube… though he didn’t specify why.
The new Stealth model has an easier upper second octave, so just temperament can be adequately blown into tune with equal temperament if you consciously push the flattened notes harder… but the second octave B and C# are still a bit troublesome.
Ideally you’d have different tubes for different temperaments, and use the appropriate one for the situation… I find it distracting to try and blow a whistle into tune with differently tuned instruments.

14

I am so glad he sent it back. I know where it lives now. I got the even temperment D and Eb tubes. Every thing said about the new stealth head applies to my pre-stealth model. It is one of my 2 most played whistles. BTW if it is possible I think the Eb sounds nicer than the D. I would like to know if there is any difference in the sound or playability of the stealth versus pre-stealth model.

Ron

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That’s interesting, given his comments earlier. I do find that if you need to tune the whislte slightly on the low side of concert pitch the B becomes too flat very quickly but it’s fine when you’re on or slightly above A=440

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Just intonation instrument doesnt sound good just because its tuned to Just intonation right? There are so many other complicated factors.

I know many people who think something will simply better only because something is tuned to Just intonation.That’s all wrong.That’s something like a branch without the root.

There is a suitable tone/sound/volume for Just intonation as well as for Equal temperament. But thats very difficult to explain.

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To try to help answer your question , Ron , my opinion is that the newer Stealth mouthpiece has a fuller , rounder sound and maintains it’s
tuning far better across the entire range. I have the older model , the original prototype Stealth and the improved Stealth version. Make no mistake , they are all fine whistles. It’s just that , if I had my choice , I would pick the new model … hands down !! Gary’s done a wonderful job on this new design and I was in the unique position to be able to take advantage of the entire development process. Hope that helped !!

Have a Great Day and Fun Whistling !!

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Actually, the only circumstance under which equal temper sounds better than just is when you are playing music which modulates from key to key…and even then, there are good arguments that equal temper is a bad solution to the problem of having every key be in tune.

One major problem is that each key has its own feel under nonequal temper, and composers used to write their music for the unique flavor of each key. C-minor was mournful, for instance, and E-major was considered the brightest of the keys. Equal temper completely destroys this, which makes much Baroque music in particular fall flat and lose much of its charm.

For a modern chromatic instrument, equal temper is an effective solution to allow playing in any key without retuning between pieces or having to have multiple instruments tuned in different ways. And it has provided a standard, which I suppose has some value of its own. If everyone else is playing equal temper, for instance, a justly-tuned whistle isn’t going to do you much good.

The downside is, with equal temper, each key is deliberately out of tune. The natural beauty of the open third is lost, and the natural feel of each key is destroyed.

I personally think that compromise tunings (quarter-comma-mean, for instance) which approach just tuning in the most common keys are the best way to go. This allows you to take almost all of your really horrid intervals and dump them into the “wolf key,” and then you simply don’t play (or write, if you are a composer) in that one key.

The “old scale” tuning of early 19th-century flutes is I think a very good compromise tuning. And I’ve played simple-system flutes for long enough that I don’t like the equal temper scale of the Boehm system…C-sharp and F-sharp both sound extremely sharp to me on the Boehm flute.

All my $.02, probably worth exactly what you paid to read it. :slight_smile:

–James

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Peeplj,your opinion sounds fair and I wont disagree.But different from what I am trying to say.

When a good tutor of piano teaches students how to play the piano, the tutor tell them how to erase/lessen the bad effects caused by Equal temperament.Digital reverbs are used effectively to lessen the bad effects caused by Equal temperament on some really good recordings.On making instruments, the same thing.What is it called in English, maybe its called ‘voicing?’.

A matter of tonal pitch is one thing.There are so many things to lessen the bad effects on Equal as well as on Just.But I hope many people show ‘real’ respects for Just temperament world like the way they do for Equal temperament world,or after all people will feel they dont need Just intonation so seriously because Equal temperament stuff taken good care of is actually better even when you play just intonation music with Equal temperament.

Anyway this is very difficult to explain.Sean Potts needed a good instrument I would presume,if possible,he wanted the one with Just but the one with Equal on the whole was better,that’s what I think.

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As you say, I think we are talking about two different aspects.

Voicing of an instrument is very important–I bet almost all whistle players know what it’s like to pick up a new whistle, be playing up the scale and every note is lovely until you hit out of nowhere a sour, raspy note that sticks out like a sore thumb. That’s a note out of voicing.

And of course the things you mention about performance technique are of paramount importance. The best-tuned and best-voiced instrument in the world won’t help you if you can’t play it.

To hear what I’m talking about with the tunings, find some a capello choral music of the High Rennaissance. Listen to the open, soaring harmonies–that’s what just intonation brings to the table, lovely open ringing harmonies that you simply cannot get–because it is mathematically impossible–on an equally tempered instrument.

–James