Just stuck my head in the door at the opening of the Willie Clancy week and looking at all the announcements for new CDs (Conal O Ghrada and a bunch of other ones I can’t recall right now) and other stuff. Anyhow I picked up the following and reproduce it verbatim:
So there you have it, there’s a picture too.
I have no connection to this. Just passing on a message as I found it.
It sounds expensive.
By chance I met the maker in question at a session in Liverpool last Monday night - very nice guy and fine whistles! He was talking about the forthcoming launch in Ireland and I suggested it might be a good move on his part to send out a C&F tour whistle. I got to have a go on about 4 of his whistles in various timbers (can’t recall what exactly - one osage, one blackwood, I think, don’t recall the others). The craftsmanship is superb and they play very well, though I have a visual aesthetic reservation about the rather large and stocky looking bump in the turning to reinforce the tuning slide area, which rather spoils their lines. He commented that (like Swayne) he tries to build in some cross-fingered accidentals in his tone-hole schema, not just leave them to chance - so the cross-fingered Bb and G# are there as well as Cnatural, and pretty good in both 8ves.
I was able to make direct comparisons with the Oz tour whistle (currently with me - review forthcoming) and my own Swayne. Viz the “unmatched” quote in Peter’s post above, the Swayne certainly out-projected the WS and was distinctly stronger and more “pushable” at the low end of the range, though maybe less responsive at the top end (around the break to 3rd 8ve). I felt the new WS whistles to be significantly better than the Oz, nice though that is, but not quite up to my Swayne. (I think the man himself probably felt the same from his unspoken reactions.) I was somewhat taken aback by the proposed price, however, at 300 Euros (c£240/U$470). Although these are not direct simultaneous comparisons, I didn’t think these whistles were any better than Bleazeys or Roses that I have had goes on previously. FWIW and for comparative example, Ormiston’s new Abell style whistle is priced at £185, Abells are U$400, Bleazey Ds are listed at £135 on his website, Roses at £180… (I don’t know Swayne’s current asking price).
I certainly believe a fine craftsman deserves recognition of the value of his work, but I think market forces may have something to say here! Good though they are, WS whistles aren’t, IMO worth c£60 more than the top level competition. They’re certainly a fine addition to the available options.
Good luck to him, though!
P.S. Peter, it’s not the person whose link you put in above, though it is a well known (in those circles) Boehm flute maker and repairer. “WS” are initials. Obviously JD and he are connected.
P.S. Peter, it’s not the person whose link you put in above, though it is a well known (in those circles) Boehm flute maker and repairer. “WS” are initials. Obviously JD and he are connected.
I have taken that out, I guessed from the location of the launch, the contact number and the fact people had played the whistles at his house it was Jon. The WS puzzled me though.
Was at the launch this afternoon but there’s always one (or two) who thinks he’s the god’s gift to music and keeps on going on or playing along, trying out becomes quite a useless exercise if you can’t hear yourself think.
Talked for a bit with Eugene Lambe who walked to try the whistle but he was gone quickly as well.
So there they are, hardwood with a delrin head, another wooden whistle.
So were you able to form an opinion of the whistle, despite the annoying circumstances? And can the identity of the mysterious “WS” now be revealed?
I spent more time talking to Eugene Lambe, who I hadn’t seen for a good while and some other people, to be honest. I tried to give a few of the whistles a whirl but things were pretty much as in the pic above, where the man on the left was genuinely trying to get an impression of the whistle while the man on the right insisted on playing totally different things right across the table (at some point he put down the whistle and pulled out a guitar and strummed away to anything anyone was trying. There was someone else who was doing similar things and bolloxing up a few attempts of myself and Eugene to get a decent go at the whistle).
The maker meanwhile was very busy explaining the intricacies of his design to interested people. That special care has been taken to allow crossfingering and a good C natural, that sort of stuff. I didn’t waste his time by talking to him. He seemed a serious, friendly, very English, man
I’ll leave the opinions to the wooden whistle buffs.