I posted earlier this week asking if anyone had a Howard Low ‘D’ for sale, Chiffer EddieV3 had one to me in two days superbly packaged at a very good price, thanks again Eddie
I sent an email to the Howards enquiring about head designs, Dorothy wrote back to me within half an hour asking for my phone number then Brian rang and spoke to me for nearly an hour giving me a whistle ‘master class’ with superb advice regarding fingering, embouchure, tuning etc
Quite remarkable especially when you consider I didn’t even purchase the whistle from them
Brian stated; ‘If someone has one of my instruments, whoever they got it from I want them to be happy with it’
I am happy with my Howard whistle. This is my second Howard whistle. I sold the first one when I bought some other low D whistles. A few years past and I found that different whistles have different personalities. What I missed about the Howard was the pop of the note when it gets up to speed. I traded a whistle for another Howard low D and now when I want to hear a polka with a low D and pop notes out the Howard is what I use. I also like the design of the head in that it fits an aluminum shower curtain rod. I have made a C and bass Bb tube for it. The Bb tube has a long finger reach and I had to move and make the bottom hole small to reach it. Also it needs delicate breath control in the two bottom notes. I could modify the head to make it respond better but then it would not play right when placed back on the Howard low D tube.
The purpose of my post was to bring attention to the quite exemplary customer service I had from the Howards (when as stated I didn’t even buy the whistle from them)
Even if the whistle had been a completely unplayable nail (it isn’t I must add) I would still have been highly impressed by the Howards and their courtesy
