It seems fitting, with my screen name here, that Bill Whedon would pick me to try out the new Serpent Brassy Singer.
So I sat at my computer with my watch close by, my sound editor program running, and three other well-known whistles for comparison (untweaked Generation, untweaked Feadog and untweaked Clarke Original)
For the objective part of the review, here is how the whistles stack up:
Back Pressure, lowest to highest: Clarke, Generation, Feadog, Serpent
This is as expected, with the relatively narrow curved windway of the Serpent.
Breath requirement, Low G: Generation, Feadog, Serpent, Clarke
Breath requirement, High G: Feadog, Serpent, Generation, Clarke
This measurement was taken by seeing how long I could hold the note on a full breath.
For loudness, I got a tie between the Feadog and Generation for the quietest and between the Serpent and Clarke for the loudest.
The tuning seems to be consistent throughout, and the “dead-on” tuning is with the tuning slide pulled slightly out. It takes a little finesse to hold it in tune in the upper half of the lower octave, but this is true of all my whistles, and not too difficult given the strong back-pressure of the Serpent.
The C-natural fingering is oxxooo.
Now, for the subjective part of the review:
The Serpent Brassy Singer is attractive in a utilitarian sort of way, as if it would be more at home in a toolbox than in an instrument case, but that’s just me. Every part of the whistle is thick-walled brass except for the fipple plug.
Finally, I would give the whistle a high score for session-worthiness. I tend to play very aggressively and lean into the whistle, and this whistle is built with exactly that in mind.
Here’s why it’s so funny - I actually do use a couple of defective BrassySinger tubes as tools in making the rest - one as a cylindrical drift to remove badly-soldered collars, and the other as a template to test head fit.