Last spring I sent Mack Hoover some nice, straight pieces of juniper wood, thinking he’d be able to do something fun with them.
I had sent Mack some other whistles for modifications, so when the box came that’s what I was expecting. The new improved whistles are wonderful, but look what else was in there! This is an A whistle of juniper wood.
This pic is a bit blurry, but gives an overall idea of what it looks like. Since juniper is a very resinous wood, there’s a slight “tack” to the wood that feels very pleasant under the fingers. Mack also told me that, for the same reason, it probably doesn’t need to be oiled (but I’m not taking any chances).
Juniper is a very light colored wood, with a dark brown or purple heartwood. Mack did some subtle but very cool things with that, as you can see in this picture. The tuning slide, by the way, fits and works flawlesslyl.
My favorite part of the whistle, visually, is the part no one but me will see when I’m playing–he made the fipple plug out of that gorgeous purple heartwood. An unnecessary and utterly classy touch!
You can also see in this picture that Mack finished the whistle with a “new old look,” to use his words. It’s just a bit rustic, totally appropriate for the material. I’m not sure how Mack did this; it’s very smooth and well finished, but I can still slightly feel the woodgrain under my fingers as I play.
This is officially my most beautiful looking whistle.
So, how does it play? It’s wonderful. Sweet, surprisingly pure sound, little chiff, just a hint of “wood” in the sound.
The holes are very nicely bevelled, easy to cover, and of a very comfortable size, making for very easy ornamentations.
The tuning is pretty much spot-on throughout.
There’s quite an increase in volume as the range goes up, but the high notes, while noticably louder, are still sweet and pleasant…as long as I keep the air going. If I try to back off, it gets sort of stuck between the octaves, and we all know how lovely that can sound. 
Jumps between octaves are crisp and easy once I got the feel for where it breaks over.
I consider Mack a friend and love the guy to death, so it might be advisable to take my reviews of his whistles with a grain of salt. But I really am being pretty objective on this one. This is one sweet little whistle. Mack didn’t put me up to this, but I do know he’s selling wood whistles now, and I also happen to know that I sent him enough wood for 4 or 5 whistles…you do the math.
One more thing I’d like to mention. Mack’s craftsmanship keeps getting better. The whistles he was making 5 or 6 years ago were nice sounding, and I like them. But when I got this latest batch, I was blown away by the improvement in tuning, stability, and ease of play. Wow.
Tom (edited to add the correct pictures)
