People often ask me which whistle is my favorite. For years, the answer has been “my Abell Madagascar rosewood d.” (It still is.) It isn’t too loud, isn’t too quiet, smells great, and has quick response and a lovely tone without much breathiness in it. It’s beautiful to look at. I have played it regularly and faithfully for years.
Well, I went digging around in my trunk full of instruments and took out a bunch of whistles to try. Well, the Kingwood O’Riordan d blows most of the others out of the water. I’ve had it for about a year and a half and I guess I played it only briefly the day I got it (BAD Jessie!). It is not much louder than my Abell d, but it is even less breathy (though it does have more fullness in its tone than, say, a Sindt) and the response is just as quick. It feels better in the lips. The drawbacks are (1) that it is thicker around than the Abell d and, therefore, uncomfortable for my fingers, and (2) that it has brass rings (I don’t like brass). A positive…because it is thicker-walled, I wouldn’t worry about it as much when traveling as I do about the Abell. So the O’Riordan has NOT usurped the Abell’s position as top whistle. But I really like it, too. WhOA!
Abell whistle, forgive me for doubting you for several hours!!
~J
[ This Message was edited by: JessieK on 2002-09-21 22:32 ]
Jessie, why don’t you like brass?
I realize your livelyhood is working with silver, is it the smell, oxidation… what specifically about brass don’t you like?
I saw this website: http://www.alpha-supply.com
they have products that silver plate, darken or patina various metals. Do you have experience with any of these products?
It’s the smell. I can’t stand the smell of brass. I have not tried any plating chemicals. I would think they would hurt the other materials near those which I would want to plate. I think it needs to be done before putting the whole thing together.
My Abell d is STILL the LAST instrument I would sell if I had to sell my instruments. So don’t hold your breath.
The Smell of Brass?
I had always thoughtthat was the brasso. Is that not the case?
I had thought about stripping off the laminate on my brass walton in order to get a nice ‘patina’ but I dont really want the smell hanging around so close to my nose.
Stella
I played trumpet until my early twenties, and the only thing I ever smelled or tasted was the valve oil. Other than that, I’ve never noticed that brass whistles smell. Maybe it’s because I don’t play very many brass whistles. The metal that I notice is copper. It leaves a weird taste in the mouth.
On 2002-09-21 23:50, JohnPalmer wrote:
(Hi Jeesie)
Hi Joohn. (<–that was intentional) I was cranky and self-righteous. You were mean. I am probably still self-righteous, but I’ll try to keep that in check publicly. Hopefully, you’ll refrain from being mean.
I am so sorry for misspelling your name. Please forgive me. I had no intention of doing such a blunder. I really meant to say hi. I was not being mean at all. I am sorry that you took it that way. I try my hardest not to make any mistakes in spelling.
You probably couldn’t smell the brass of trumpets because they usually are lacquer coated.
I don’t like raw brass either because it changes colors, looses it’s shine, so I coat them with polyurethane.
I’m curious now about the smell of different whistles. Since I live near the river, my sense of smell just doesn’t work - never has.
What do other whistles smell like? Are some of them really bad?
BTW - I tried the Alpha-Supply browning and blackening chemicals. I wasn’t satisfied, the blackening chipped off too easily and the browning turned well, “Milky, Brown and Green” after clear coating even though it was thoroughly washed. However, the weird color was not what I was looking for, I went ahead a made a chromatic Low-D whistle out of it. When I’m finished, I’ll have most unusually looking whistle.
[ This Message was edited by: Daniel_Bingamon on 2002-09-22 10:03 ]
You know, Jessie, sometimes I wish you would just not post at all. And I will not NOT reply to anymore of yours posts. You have done everything and have heard everything, so MOVE ALONG!
Actually, I was referring to this, but you probably already know that. I spelled your name incorrectly to be light and funny.
I don’t mind the smell, but the taste of brass really bothers me. Even the tiny bit of it that touches your lips with a Sindt whistle was enough to put me off the whistle. Copper is even worse. Silver, stainless steel, nickel silver and aluminum don’t seem to bother me. I’m ok with plastic, but I know some people who gag on the taste of that. I’ve also heard some say that they had a reaction/burning sensation from a specific plastic whistle head - I think it was an Oak. Anyone else heard of this?
It’s strange that we have not discussed this topic before–that of tingling lips and bad smells.
Looking at orchestral instruments, those which touch a person’s mouth are made of silver/gold (flute), wood (clarinet and oboe families), and certain metals acting as coatings for other metals (brass). Maybe they already knew that certain metals didn’t fare well with many people, and so someone did somthing about it. And plastics, I can’t think of any instrument in an orchestra that uses plastic as a mouthpiece, except maybe in the percussion section. . .as a whistle of some kind.
On 2002-09-22 19:47, jim_mc wrote:
I’ve also heard some say that they had a reaction/burning sensation from a specific plastic whistle head - I think it was an Oak. Anyone else heard of this?
On 2002-09-23 01:02, JohnPalmer wrote:
It’s strange that we have not discussed this topic before–that of tingling lips and bad smells.
This has come up a lot with Oaks…a search for “Oak whistle” came up with a lot of threads on it. Here’s one of them:
To my knowledge, most clarinet mouthpieces are made of plastic or rubber composites. Saxophone mouthpieces include these possibilities as well as brass and other metals. (Wood is also an option for both instruments, but these are relatively rare.) I don’t recall ever tasting anything from any of the plastic or ebonite mouthpieces I’ve played on. I suspect that some whistle makers are not quite so particular about the materials they use. Then again, it’s not at all uncommon to spend one hundred dollars or more for a good mouthpiece; you can get a handful of most whistles with plastic components for that!
