Hi friends. It’s soon time for me to buy a low whistle, the key I don’t know yet, D I’d love, but I’m a beginner, so that would be the hardest thing to start with. Anyway, which of the two would you recomend? A low dixon, or a low water weasel? How do they compare in terms of fingerstretch? Lungcapacity? Etc.
Thanks a lot! And here’s a virtual rose to all the lasses.
Amar
Dixons have easy reach and easy air requirements. WWs, the lowest of which I have tried is a G, have a big reach, and reasonable air requirements.
At present, there is no Water Weasel lower than an F.
If you don’t really need to go as low as a D, I would definitely recommend the Weasels. I have a G, and it’s terrific. I haven’t played a Dixon low whistle,but I have regular D’s in Dixon and Weasel, and definitely prefer the Weasels. Dixon’s are very nice, especially at the price, but my personal preference is the Weasel
I enjoy my Weasel F immensely. G is the only one of the Weasel series I don’t have. Typically, I use the F when playing either F or Bb keyed songs with Church choir. The F Bell note lets you get underneath a Bb tonic note and play tenor or alto accompanying parts written into that range. If you’re looking at practicalities of how often you might use a Low Whistle, I can tell you I use my Copeland Low D a lot more than my Low F. I’ve personally not felt the need for a Low G, as I prefer playing C tunes on my C whistle, and the Low D can be used for anything in the key of G or A.
On 2002-02-14 06:50, amar wrote:
Anyway, which of the two would you recomend? A low dixon, or a low water weasel? How do they compare in terms of fingerstretch? Lungcapacity? Etc.
Thanks a lot! And here’s a virtual rose to all the lasses.
Amar
I’ve never had the joy of playing a WW so no comment there (that said, people seem to love them, and yes, given the shifts in physche I have had since hanging out here I am sure I’ll end up buying one sooner or later 
), but I do own a low Dixon D, and have found it super-forgiving to play compared to some other low D’s. Easy air requirement, easy finger stretch, relatively small holes, and relatively inexpensive, but that’s just my $0.02. As a first low whistle, it’s not bad.
Also, being non-metallic, it won’t get too badly damaged when you throw it at the wall when trying to play jigs and reels you can play in your sleep on a high D
Richard
I vote for WWEASELS.
Just to throw a bit of confusion into things I would reccomend a Hoover Low D, fingerstretch is easy even for small hands (my 7 year old can cover all the holes) breath requirements are fairly low, lovely deep echoing sound
a hoover? now why did you do that, I thought i’d go for a dixon…if a 7 year old can cover the holes of a low d, that’s quite amazing, either he’s got huge paws or the whistles really swell for a beginner…darn, thanks alot…
SHE has pretty normal sized 7 year old hands
Ron