Initial Impressions and Sound Clip: Serpent Polly-mer D

Whistle
1

I’ve ordered a couple of Bill’s poly whistles with instructions that he paint them with his loudest, brightest, most obnoxious color scheme available.

While he’s working on them, he sent me one of his tunable polly prototypes. Here’s the Crib of Perches on it:

http://www.flutesite.com/samples/serp_perches.mp3

Impressions:

Bill is really turning out nice whistles these days.

If you remember on his early copper Serpent he sent me, I loved the tone but found the whistle to in some ways be difficult to play.

He has fixed every issue I had on the original model.

Clogging problems are gone, as is the need to “warm up” the whistle before serious play. Breath control problems are gone; this whistle has good resistance and good pitch stability with blowing pressures ranging from light to moderately stiff, giving you some volume control.

The finger holes are now comfortably, naturally spaced, and tuning is still very good.

The octaves are nicely balanced and it doesn’t get shrill on the high end.

The tone is quite different; his earlier whistle was very soft, somewhat pure, with some chiff and a bit of a raspy edge. This whistle has moderate volume with a much stronger low end. The tone is hard to describe–focused with a bit of ring yet not pure but with no extra air in it either.

Nice whistle. Very nicely done, Bill!

More reviews to follow–I’ve the two pollys with his latest fipple ordered (one for me one for Shannon), and a B-flat Village Viper coming my way soon.

–James

2

Correction:

Bill tells me the poly he sent me is not a prototype, just a straight production whistle.

We played session for about 3 hours tonight, the whistle was a hit.

–James

3

Thanks James; that clip was long enough and varied enough so that one could really make a determination as to whether the tone and probably even playability was suitable for a specific individual.

PhilO

4

Very nicely played, Jim; I’ll be working on that tune. :slight_smile:

5

Me too Jim. Just added that tune to my “Must Learn” file. Nicely done. I have a very old Serpent that is just a B..ch to play but I love the feel and weight of it and when I get it to work it sounds realy good. I`ll have to check with Bill and see if there is anything he can do to it without changing it much.

Tom

6

Have you heard it on Matt Molloy’s Shodows on Stone cd? It’s in a set with possibly the coolest damn reel I’ve ever heard, Carmel Mahoney Mulhaire’s or something like that. It’s worth getting the cd for just that tune, but then it’s all rocking. Not one tune is bad.

7

The old serpents were okay, but they had some deficiencies down in the bell note area, and in being excessively airy and (sometimes) squeaky. The design has evolved so much now, that the new ones barely resemble the earliest in sound and playability. I’m still using the same materials, so the heft and balance hasn’t changed much, however. Email me and we’ll talk about a trade-in.

(brag) I just sent off a B-flat narrow bore Village Viper to a tester. The durn thing has a 4-1/2 octave range. That’s right - 4-1/2 octaves. Peel the paint off the walls? You’ll be lucky if you still have walls! My ears are still ringing! (/brag) I have no intention of selling B-flat narrow bores. They make the neighborhood dogs howl, poor canines! Just had to tell ya! :smiley:
serp