I’m wanting to buy whistles in A, B (mezzo, not low low) and high E. Preferably tuneable. Besides Burke, does anybody know where to get these keys? Used is fine, too. Will post an ad in the exchange. (Willing to pay for Burkes if necessary, but wanted to explore other options.
Thanks!
Hi awildman
Have you thought about buying the Syn mega set. You may be able to oder it through The Irish Flute Store.You get two whistle heads and 8 bodies (E, Eb, D, C#, C, B, Bb and A). This should cover all bases.
David
There are several whistle makers that offer multiple keys. Here is one of them:
http://www.susato.com/konakart/Pennywhistles/Kildare/1_144_-1_73.do
http://www.susato.com/konakart/Welcome.do
I was not aware that such an extensive set existed! And exchange rate seems pretty good right now. 210 pounds = 256 USD. We’ll see if the Irish Flute store can offer a comparable price and a reasonable delivery time since they don’t stock it.
In the meantime, any other suggestions are still welcome. Thanks again!
If you are looking for Susatos, I buy from Thom Larson at the Whistle Shop:
http://www.thewhistleshop.com
Jerry Freeman’s Tweaked whistles are available on eBay at his store:
http://stores.ebay.com/freemanwhistles/
I just ordered some Tony Dixon whistles here (I ordered a Kerry Optima, too, but I wanted to try the polymer):
http://www.harpanddragon.com/irishmusicalinstruments.htm
That Syn set looks like a great way to go. Syn is one make that I’ve heard much about but never tried myself.
Personally the one-head-multiple-bodies thing has never appealed to me all that much because when I’m out somewhere I want to be able to grab a whistle and play. When I’ve had two bodies that I use a single head for I end up getting another head at some point so that each whistle is good to go.
As I’ve posted before, I love old Generations and my solution for the keys of A, B, and C# was to make my own FrankenGens, starting at the left A, Bb, B, C, C# etc. Yes I’ve had to use all of them at gigs. I really like that A, in fact I had a fantastic Sindt A that I ended up selling because I like my FrankenGen A a tiny bit more.
For E, I plan to carve up an Eb Generation body and use a Generation, Feadog MK1, or Killarney head on it. Just not got round to it. I suppose I could go the other way and stretch a Generation F down to E.
It’s easy to move a Generation body up a half-step:
chop the top of the tube until the notes that emit from Holes 2, 3, and 4 are in tune to the new key (don’t worry about anything else at this point)
you will note that the bell-note and its octave are now flat, so chop the bottom of the tube until these notes are in tune to the new key
you will now find that the notes that emit from Holes 5 and 6 are flat to everything else, so carve out these two holes. The rest of the holes should be good. Hole 1 is a special case; I prefer it to be a hair flat so that the crossfingered Flat 7th is in tune, so usually I don’t carve it.
For many years I’ve used an old Overton Low E for that key, but one of these days I plan on buying a Burke or Goldie Low E. I love how Low E whistles play, and not such a fan of the higher-pitched Generations.
Richard, “Flat 7th”, would be C-nat on a D whistle?
Which cross-fingered C-nat is your preferred, the OXOXXX (which I am now preferring), or does it depend on the instrument?
contact Jakub Goldfinch, a nice guy who will be pleased to make what you need . He is a member of CF as well