I have a low D I bought at Christmas. I like it very much; it plays easily, excellent tuning. I tightened up the tuning joint with a bit more teflon tape to where I liked it, but that’s the only tweaking I did. The mouthpiece/fipple is adjustable; you can vary the tone and characteristics by moving it in or out (there is a line you can use as a starting point). When I bought mine, the mouthpiece was pushed quite far in from the line, and I found the second octave difficult; once I set it to the line, it played beautifully. I have tried some minor adjustments but personally I have found having it at the line is what I’m looking for for now.
I plan to buy some high whistles, and I’ve seen Ryan J. playing them (as well as the low D); he’s an excellent musician, and can make them sing.
Outside of buying directly, the only place that I know for sure is carrying them is Long and McQuade in the Canadian Atlantic provinces…they used to be called Musicstop until they were recently bought out by L & M. I bought mine at the Musicstop in Cape Breton, and the salesperson did a search for me and found there were some at other branches (Halifax, etc.). I was in the Halifax Folklore Centre not long ago, and they hadn’t heard of them; they were carrying Chieftains, but a non-tuneable low D was considerably more expensive than the MacNeil tuneable low D.
Personally, I think they are very good instruments.
I have a Macneil Low D which I purchased at Irish Fest in Milwaukee last summer. It’s the aluminum version though, not the titanium. I’ve never owned nor played any other Low D, so I’m not a good judge on how it compares to others out there. I can tell you however that I like it very much. I’m of average height and hand size, and I find the finger spread to be quite manageable with a piper’s grip. I agree with Adrian in that it doesn’t require any real tweaking. The sound is pleasant and warm. The fipple is an interesting design. Overall, I’m very glad I made the purchase.
I’ll try to upload a clip when I get home tonight.
Sorry for the delay in posting a clip. It appears my web page is no longer accessible thanks to a shift in operations and services with Time Warner Roadrunner. Now I only get a browser based page to monkey with, using their really lousy templates.
I haven’t set it up properly yet, but I did post a clip of me playing Tabhair Dom Do Lamh. You’ll have to forgive my newbie playing style, and please look past my absolutely sloppy half-holing. I nailed it on all the other takes but made bigger mistakes in other parts. So, I decided to use this clip. I hope it serves as being useful to you.
I see this is an old thread, but I have just started playing my MacNeil C whistle after getting it back from my daughter in Edmonton. It has a beautiful tone and I’m enjoying it immensely. The polycarbonate mouthpiece feels good in the mouth; mine is attached to the tube with a rivet and doesn’t seem to be moveable, but I don’t need to move it since there’s a tuning slide. I haven’t been at it long enough to make a clip and post it, but I could do that.
I bought it at the Boxwood Festival back in 2008, in Lunenburg NS. Brian Finnegan was teaching there that year and he bought some whistles from Ryan J. So, these whistles are in some pretty great hands.There is a clip on YouTube of Brian playing a low Eb MacNeil whistle here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7wE0RaCVMw
The tune is Back to Belfast which is on Brian’s recent solo album The Ravishing Genius of Bones.
