Quite pure, bright tone, with some reediness if you lean into it.
Large holes make half-holing easy (clean low F-nat) while standard cross-fingerings work.
This whistle just returned from Ralph Sweet’s for “rebalancing” .
The second octave needed some “push” and was loud. The block was modified so the windway tapers in the fashion devised for the new birch laminate models (aka Professional).
It does the job, though the lower octave retains a loud “session” volume with a stable low end.
I did ponder, but I’ll keep my quieter Rose blackwood instead. Also, I ordered the same Sweet keyed…
Asking $120 plus shipping, though I could get interested in trade-ins or swaps (for lower keys, C excluded).
Please enquire through this board Private Message service.
Just to add a bit of trivia here the whsitle is a favourite with [you would have guessed it] John Kilhoury, a whislteplayer from Ballyfaudeen, Liscannor Co Clare. Close to his 81st birthday he’s still going strong. His brtother Paddy [fiddle] and himself were lifelong companions of the Russells, who lived just over the hill from them, and they were some of the stalwarts of North Clare music.
John must have had this gra for wooden whistles all along, I remember him during the early eighties when he would land on anybody he suspected of being German. He’s pull out a catalogue of a musical instrument manufacturer from Dresden and point out a wooden whsitle he had been trying to get to replace one he used to have. He had been after writing them but they never responded. Maybe a German native could look them up and send a whistle over, no harm in asking anyway.
No way I could locate a wind instruments maker in Dresden. In the 30’s, the maker could well have emigrated, if Jewish. Later, Dresden was caught in East zone (or am I wrong?), with many small businesses closed, renamed as part of some Kombinat, or who managed to flee Westwards.
If there was a catalog, there must have been a brand name on it?
(Btw, thank you for throwing a light on this “Kilhoury” line name; I supposed it was some village in Eire–it did not occur to me it could be someone.)
Ofcourse you can’t, few will have survived the bombing of the city anyway, we all knew it but John didn’t want to see it, that was the story, he jsut kept coming up with the fifty year old catalogue wondering they didn’t write back.
By the way, Paddy and John were filmed in the documentary ‘Bringing it all back home’, talking about the house dances etc. Worth the look if you get hold of the video.
I have the model in C. I love it - a beautiful durable whistle with full clear tone and strong volume with, just as you said Zub, a touch of reed when you push the upper end…I haven’t found many C whistles I really like (SIndt and Walton Golden Tone being the exceptions), but this is one of them…
so I spotted only one woodwinds repair business in Dresden, and inquired like sendin a bottle in the ocean.
To my surprise, a “netter Mann” answered instantly, and he does in some way confirm Mr Kilhourny’s story:
PS: this all-lowercase answer tells me I may make any mistakes I want with German CAPS.
PPS: glauber meyer pinto ribeiro dear-dear, believe me even on the Internet one can see you’re a dog! Now if it’s a recorder you’re after, get out the closet: I have a couple. The real McCoy–plastic. Nice condition 102% unplayed…
i used to be put off when people asked me where i got the pretty recorder, but the Sweetheart whistle is such a great whistle for playing in sessions that i just swallow my pride and play it anyway. This is a good whistle. If you want a loud whistle for sessions, this is it.
I knew you were joking*, y’know, even if I didn’t add the mandatory smiley.
And yes, Zub = tooth in about any Slavic language.
Zubivka = a flute played with the teeth.
Zubr = tatanka.
Zubrovka = Spirits of the Tatankas’ Grass. Booze, like.
Zoob(.com)post = tatanka manure.
This, dear web-addicts, is the end of our cultural intermission, sponsored by Zoob Bruz, Inc.–so smoooooth
Trick here, found in an old Acme Glauberco User’s Manual: he’s never serious. I mean never overly.
Glauber, I think Zubivka may be whislte or something of that sort in Ukrainian, but I am not sure… Zoob will tell.
Zoobie-doobie, that was a very cool German email. Great that he answered your inquiry. I think a wooden whistle from Germany in the Thirties would be neat think to see.
Zubata (the toothy one) is a funny euphemism for death. It shows up in that movie Kollya (which is a great movie, btw). And my wife and i have a nickname for someone we know who smiles all the time: zuby-dcere (tooth-displaying).
Anyway, will someone buy the pretty recorder already?!?!
The Sweet is gone to an undisclosed member of this board. Considering the current mishaps with Royal Mail, she came to pick it up, only a few hundred miles and a gale over the Channel away…
Note she dislikes re****ers as much as any healthy chiffer.
Having the choice between the Sweet and the Rose, she praised both for playing well.
However, she judged the latter looked decidedly… tacky with its gold-plating.
I’ll keep the Rose, and shall just pretend it’s a gift from some Emir.
So much for supposed reputations of superiority, both in sound and looks
