Yes, beware, it’s Philo posting day.
I’ve been thinking(always dangerous). I’ve gone through so many phases and read about others going through phases with regard to whistle preferences, and after awhile, it all starts to sound like blah, blah, blah, blabbity blah. SO, I’ve come to the conclusion that I have just one thing in common with Joannie Madden with respect to whistles (see Jerry Freeman thread re meeting up with Joannie recently) - I basically love em all. Cheapies, high-enders, wood, metal, plastic, conical, narrow and wide bore. Ok, so I prefer tuneable, and I’m just not a Chieftain/Overton kind of guy (wonderful as they are). And yes, if pushed to the wall, I’ll play my Sindts, Burkes, Copelands, Abells, O’Riordans, and Walton Golden Tones first, and never leave home without my Busman green delrin.
By now if any of you have been paying attention (not required thankfully) to my posts over the years, and someone bothered to track them, you’d probably catch me up and scream “What bloody whistle doesn’t he like!” So here’s a suggestion for analyzing and weighting the Board chit chat on people’s whistle preferences, especially with regard to newer less entrenched brands. See if they come back and continue to praise said whistles over time. Many’s the time I’ll say I just tried such and such whistle and it plays well and it’s beautiful to look at; be careful with dilettante player/collectors like me, because sometimes I’ll realize after a while that said whistle is not going to be among my favorites based on its playability and tone and I don’t usually come back and say so; I just never mention it again. That said,probably a good 95% of my whistles are eminently playable and enjoyable, and I hate just one.
I am very much in agreement. I have a variety of whistles in various keys. There are some I love and some that I like. There is only one I don’t like as in I seldom play, Clark Original. That puts me in the minority. I have all the cheapies some of these are my favorites. I also have some more expensive whistles, Alba, Burke, Humphries, etc. For instance At the Cleveland Irish fest I bought a Feadog D. This weekend at Dublin I will probably buy another Burke. They each have there own personality. See my signature line.
Same here. I’ve not been to a session, though there are many local players. I just enjoy playing this music for myself. I’ve lots of recordings, links to tunes here and there and am always adding to the tune collection here on the Mac in one form or another. I’ve bought, sold and traded whistles for a handful of years now, and have Hoovers, Burkes, what’s basically a whole set of O’Riordans, O’Brien, Greenwoods, and a Clarke original that I simply don’t like and never did as well as others I’m probably not remembering. The music and the whistles have brought me countless hours of enjoyments, as does C&F. I say thanks to all of you!
Well I’ve been playing my Feadog D since around 1980 and nothing I’ve played has knocked it off its perch as my go-to D.
And likewise with my Generation C.
None of the Neo-Whistles I’ve ever tried measure up to either one. Of course it’s a completely personal thing.
I don’t love all whistles at all- I have some horrid ones which are unplayable and I couldn’t give away, probably. Anyhow my goal is to own ONE of each key I need and learn to play it as well as I can.
I’ve only just started building my collection of whistles, and so far only own three different makes (Generation, Susato, Dixon). Already I’m starting to understand the addictiveness of whistle-buying… the only thing that’s stopping me is the red colour on the bank statement.
Btw, I find it noticeable that my favourite out of my three hardly ever gets mentioned on here - Tony Dixon. Why’s that?
Maybe because they are in that twilight zone - not ridiculously cheap, but not expensive either? I like my Dixon trad in D very much, but then I also like the whistle that PhilO hates.
Great post, PhilO! Whistle do in general make me smile. I’ve had many, many whistles. I will likely acquire many more. I think I’ve learned something from every whistle I’ve owned and played. Some of the lessons have been good and some not so good. That fuels my own whistle making adventures.
Might that be a chrome-molybdenum model? I can’t say I’ve hated any whistle but a few have caused me to ask “What were they thinking?” They cause me to chuckle when I pull them out of storage. And I won’t sell those because I wouldn’t wish them on any other unsuspecting player. Still their makers went to a lot of effort to produce them and they represent unique efforts in whistle design and crafting. Some happen to be more rustic than others.
Mr. Dixon has had his days in the sun, for sure. Just do a search. You’ll get over 6,200 hits. Hardly overlooked or noticeably absent! Oh, and don’t leave a polymer Dixon out in the sun or in the car on a sunny day.
I’m not quite there, but I’m leaning in that direction. After getting my Jerry Freeman Mellow Dog in D with the C body, I’m not inclined to play any of my other D whistles. The Mellow Dog is just easier to play.
But if I had a need for a soft breathy tone, I’d go with the Clarke Original. That might be useful in certain ensemble situations, for instance.
Point of information: that thread was about Jerry’s meeting Mary Bergin. I take it you haven’t met Mary and Joanie, Phil, if you had I don’t think you’d be confusing them.
I know what you mean BTW: in answer to the question of what whistle I thought was best, I once came up with, whatever I’ve been playing for the last 5 minutes.
I’m nowhere close to that. I’ve bought and then turned around and sold many whistles because they just did nothing for me.
For example, wood and plastic whistles do absolutely nothing for me. I won’t name any makers out of respect but there are a lot of metal (aluminum, brass, etc.) “high-end” whistles that I’ve tried out which couldn’t come close to getting me to put down my O’Briain Feadog. I don’t know quite what it is but my Sindt and a few particularly nice cheapies are all I’ve been able to hang onto. Oddly enough, low whistles do absolutely nothing for me either (though I enjoy Bb immensly).
Maybe I just let the Chieftains and Mary Bergin records get into my ear too much in the early days of whistle exposure
I’ll second that, the O’Briain Feadog is pretty much the only whistle I would play out at a session, sometimes the Sindt. I do know ‘what it is’ but it would be difficult to describe.
Right, I have inklings and theories floating around upstairs but not the technical jargon or desire to explain it in detail
I think the thin-walled tubing plays a part in it, though others have argued that the material and specs of the tube has nothing to do with the sound.
If it weren’t for the low volume of the Sindts I’d play that a lot more in the session too. I think the “session volume whistle” necessity that so many worry about is bunk but the Sindt is usually too quiet for me to hear myself (intonation, etc.) and I almost always end up blowing sharp to accommodate and it ruins the sound of a lovely whistle. I absolutely love the way the Sindts are weighted though, just sits there on the lip so nicely and keeps the stick light in the fingers!
I agree with you, the character of tone is way more important than volume, and one often compromises the other. When people play me their ‘loud’ session whistles I rarely like the sound they make with them (although sometimes I do). I guess it’s personal taste. But I do find it interesting how quickly whistle discussions move away from tone to volume or ‘being heard’ (above others, in a noisy room).
Taken individually, most cheap/tweaked whistles are just as audiable as most cheap fiddles (played by an average sort of an intermediate session player anyway). Yet, you don’t get quite the same angst from people learning the fiddle about ‘being heard’ above others, or swappping their fiddle every couple of months, or saving up for the elusive volume of a steel body Dobro resonator. I guess they can hear themselves a bit better than playing the whistle, where your neighbour probably gets more of it than yourself?
I don’t think you solve the problem by being louder. Blast away on your special ‘session’ whistle and the fiddler next to you starts scraping a bit harder and the box player starts squeezing a bit harder and the punters start talking a bit louder and before you know it you’ve an unholy racket and everyone goes home grumpy to search the Internet for louder whistles.
I love to hear a nice tune played on the whistle in a session, and at one of the more regular sessions I go to here (Co. Galway) I quite often get asked to pick up the whistle during the evening (I’d usually be playing the flute) but then I’d often be left to play the tune entirely on my own, or with the bodhran, or others would join in more quietly than usual. Same might be true for a fiddle player (there wouldn’t be more than one there) or a song. Roundabout way of saying that ‘being heard’ has much more to do with the character of the session than the instrument. You wouldn’t expect to be ‘heard’ individually in a pub if there were 6 whistles going at it (god forbid!), why would you want to be heard above 6 fiddles?
I’d say a more important question would be…if everyone suddenly stopped and could hear you perfectly, which whistle would you pick up then? I’d play that one every time.
It’s kind of funny, but in a pipe band our goal is to not be able to hear ourselves. That sounds almost comical, I know, but what I mean is that we want all of our chanters to sound identical, and we want our phrasing to be exactly the same, so that the effect is like a single, big, bagpipe. “If you can hear yourself then you’re doing something wrong.” is what the pipe major says.
My wife, who is a violinist, actually bought a new fiddle a few years back because she needed “louder.” When she found the one she wanted it was quite a bit louder in the room, but quieter under her ear. Neat trick that.
After hearing a great whistle player playing on a Mellow Dog, I decided to get one, and I’ve noticed the same kind thing – when he was playing his and I was listening it sounded pretty loud, but now that I have one when I play it it doesn’t seem so loud. Nice.
When singing in a choir I have been told “if you can’t hear yourself you are probably in tune” , which tallies with what highland-piper says. I have hoped that that is the case on whistle and flute.
Oh, and don’t leave a polymer Dixon out in the sun or in the car on a sunny day.