new Reyburn high D/C: what a great whistle

Whistle
1

I recently got from Ronaldo Reyburn his newest model high D/C set whistle, and it’s really really great. I’m mainly a flute player and don’t have the words to best describe it, but maybe you’ll get an idea.

The thick brass body is very heavy for a whistle, and I find this a very nice feature because it it won’t fly away from your hands, it feels more solid.
It has a robust and complex tone, solid on the low notes but sweet on the higher notes. Very nice balance. It also looks gorgeous :smiley: .
A friend said that it sounds a bit like his lovely Sindt but with more power. In fact this whistle is certainly on the loud side, but not too loud (a bit less than a Susato). It doesn’t overwhelm too much smaller sessions, but you can still hear it when playing with 14 musicans (not much on lower notes, but clearly from B). The C body is also great, I use it to play Dminor tunes. It really gives a “darker” feel when compared to the D body.
I had the opportunity to compare it with an Abell. Well there isn’t really much to compare, they’re completely different beasts. The Abell (at least the one i tried) has a more open and pure sound, and is just a little bit louder (but not on the lower notes), though the Reyburn cuts nicely through the other intruments, is more penetrating. I must say (but this is completely subjective) that I prefer my Reyburn.
Now the “negative” features:
I noticed that it benefits a lot from being warmed up, much more than on other whistles. This means that on the first tunes played it might not show its full potential.
It’s better not to forget to take off the head before going to sleep, after two days it almost got stuck… Also, the tuning slide only has a thin line as a tuning reference, more lines on the sharp side (closer to the tone holes) would have been handy (you can’t keep the head at a more or less fixed point because you have to take it off all the times).
I would have liked a little bit more power on the C body, but being a duo you can’t make the body larger that the D one.

That being said, the Reyburn is my favourite of all the whistles I’ve tried, a real beauty. The tone is just amazing…

I know you guys will ask for a sound clip, I’ll try to make one if I find the time…

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Good review. Sounds like an interesting whistle. I’d like to try one some day. As for the C whistle not having the power of the D, this can compensated for by using a head-joint with a wider windway on the C whistle. This works well on my Hans Bracker D (narrow windway) and C (wide windway) whistles which are pretty close in tems of power and volume. I wonder if Reyburn could make a C head-joint with a wider windway for more power.

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Of course it’s easy to make the C sound louder, but D/C sets exist because you won’t have to pay for an extra head, which usually is the most expensive part of a whistle. The extra C body was only 30 dollars over the price of the D whistle.

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Yes, the bodies cost much less than the head-joints. But it’s worth the extra cost to me to have the head-joints and bodies perfectly matched. Also I like to leave my whistles assembled 24/7. So all the bodies need an accompanying head-joint.