Does anyone here have any experience with the Jubilee PVE Practice Low Whistle?
For $18, I wasn’t expecting it to be perfect, but the one I just got sure takes a LOT of air – especially in the 2nd octave. By the time I get up to a high G or A, I’m down to only 1 or 2 notes per breath.
On the plus side, I do like the hole spacing (which is designed for smaller hands) and the price. I think the tone sounds good, too, but I haven’t spent enough time (or lung power) yet to really check it out.
Yup, that is the practice whistle. I could be a smart eleck and tell you to be glad you got the newer, improved model since it takes half the air of the first one, but I won’t.
If he could figure out a way to shrink the airway, keep the sound quality AND keep the price down he would have a super star.
Thanks. That’s what I was afraid of. I actually did stuff a folded piece of cardboard into the airway to see if it helped. I think with some fine-tuning you might be able to tweak it by adding a shim or three, but adjusting the length of the airway would be tricky.
You’d think I’d know by now to ask FIRST and buy later but, well, it was late and WhOA had set in and . . . .
We need a emoticon for “gasping for breath” to go along with my new whistle.
I managed to cut down on the air on mine by putting a small piece of plastic drinking straw down the airway and then filling in around it with tiny bits of blue tac to stop air leaking.
By the way, it’s also cool to go buy a 45 degree coupling and make the whistle not only tunable, but give it a cool bent neck design.
Having had mine for quite some time, I can now play a couple of bars on a breath, but I’m still lightheaded by the time I reach then end of the A part of a slow air.
Everything else about it is great, including finger spacing, timbre, and balance across octaves.
Try this, though:
Purse your lips like you’re trying to squirt a stream of water as far as possible.
Instead of putting the mouthpiece between your lips, place the lower edge of the mouthpiece at the lower edge of your lower lip, but keep the upper edge about 1/8" from your upper lip.
Direct the stream of air across your lower lip and into the windway opening and play.
For me, this cuts down the air flow considerably, without seriously reducing the volume–which isn’t all that high to begin with. Once you’ve done this for a few minutes, you can move in a bit tighter and still keep control–as long as you don’t get the mouthpiece between your lips again.
I just discovered this, based on something I read in Grey Larsen’s Tin Whistle Toolbox, I think.
Thanks Mike & V.B. Great ideas. I’ll try them out.
Your comments about the whistle encourage me, Mike. So far, the air required to blow it is the only thing I don’t like. If that can be solved and the timbre and octave balance stay good, then I’ll be happy. I’m not worried about volume right now. Quieter’s probably better, actually.
In case anyone else is reading this and thinking of getting one, I should probably add that this is a functional whistle (provided, as noted, one has bellows-like lungs), not a beautiful one. The machining of the mouthpiece section on mine is a bit rough, and the finger holes could be cleaned up a little more. It is, as advertised, a practice whistle.
I agree with Steven that if the maker can figure out how to shrink the airway while keeping the sound quality and price intact he’d probably have a big hit here.
BTW, I’ve been testing my new technique, and I can get through an entire phrase on a single breath–and I no longer pass out after my first pass through The Dear Irish Boy.
I also have one. I think it is a real bargain considering it is about 1/4th the price of the next Low D up the price ladder and 1/10th the price of the most popular low Ds. It has a good tone and is in tune. It gets easier to play after a while. I bought mine to learn to play a low D. Hopefully I will find other low Ds much easier to play.
I played around with this one over the weekend. Never quite got the knack of just blowing into it through pursed lips, but the drinking straw trick seems to work well for me. I haven’t used any adhesive or filler around the straw yet – I just left an inch or so of straw sticking out of the mouthpiece and am blowing directly into that.
It takes a little adjusting to get the straw just at the edge of the window, but once that’s dialed in the whistle sounds the same as before AND takes a whole lot less air. It’s an amazingly easy fix!
I do notice a LOT of condensation quickly developing in the straw, though. Maybe I shouldn’t have used a transparent one?
Once you get some solid material packed in and around the straw it should help reduce the condensation. The material will warm up and that will help a lot.
Thanks. I hadn’t considered that, but it makes sense.
Any suggestions for what to fill that space with? I tried to find the “blue tac” that Vomitbunny recommended, but the folks at our local hardware store just looked at me blankly, said they’d never heard of the stuff, and wandered off without being able to suggest any alternatives.
I picked up some of that semi-sticky, malleable, putty-like adhesive for mounting posters temporarily on walls, but the label implies that it should not contact the skin for prolonged periods or be taken internally. Doesn’t sound like the ideal stuff to pack in a mouthpiece.
I’ve considered just bonding the straw in place with 5-minute epoxy, but wasn’t sure if making this a permanent change was the right thing to do just yet.
By the way, Daniel Bingamon of Jubilee Whistles wrote back to me offering to exchange the whistle. I told him about the straw trick and that several folks seemed to think his whistle would be pretty popular if he could solve the airflow issues. He’s thinking about it, so there might be another “new and improved” version some time.
I actually considered the chewing gum, but I figured there must be some cool, sophisticated solution the experienced tweakers knew about that I didn’t.
I should have remembered, this is the same group of people who suggested fungal toenails as an alternative whistle material.
Wrigley’s Spearmint then, I think, and the next song to learn on my new whistle will be:
Does your chewing gum lose its flavor
in the whistle overnight?
If you mother says don’t play it
do you blow high notes in spite?
.
.
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