I’m on my way to purchasing a Burke whistle… the Aluminum Pro Session, but do I need to worry about narrow bore and all of that? What does the narrow bore do anyway?
The narrow bore is a bit quieter than the wide bore “session” model, which is loud enough, but not a screamer. The narrow bore has a more pure, non-chiffy sound. It clogs somewhat due to the narrow windway. It’s a nice whistle for solo playing.
I have one of each in brass, by the way, not aluminum.
Tony
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“When you make it to the top of the mountain, keep on climbing.” -Zen saying
[ This Message was edited by: TonyHiggins on 2002-06-13 14:55 ]
Does the regular whistle have a lot of chiff in the upper register? I’d like a louder whistle, but if it’s going to have a lot of chiff on top, then narrow bore would be best.
Virtually no chiff, IMHO
You have to realize that the higher notes on just about any whistle are necessarily louder- they require more pressure to hit them. The louder the note, the more the chiff is obliterated whether it’s there or not. A lot of whistles sound purer in the upper octave. Once I played a chiffy feadog beside a small waterfall. The water noise completely covered the chiff and the whistle had an amazingly pure tone. It sounded like an O’Briain Improved. That’s a way you can make your cheap whistles sound more expensive. Then again, practice improves the sound as well. 
Tony
Clips](http://nwparalegal.com/clipssnip/newspage.htm%22%3EClips) and Snips Tunes
“When you make it to the top of the mountain, keep on climbing.” -Zen saying
[ This Message was edited by: TonyHiggins on 2002-06-13 17:37 ]
I don’t know about the narrow bore, but if you want to hear what I think about the narrow-minded bore, drop me a pm. 
Narrow bores do create high frequency harmonics. Boehm created the flute with a slightly narrow bore to encourage voice in the third octave.
Fipples can be very picky on narrow bore instruments, they need to be well machined.
Whistles that are consistant in design and well voiced will do well with a narrow bore.
If you want to approach the third octave, you’ll need narrow bore.