Its been enough years since I last posted here that I couldn’t even find my old identity so I re-subscribed in order to let you know about a whistle I recently acquired…
After hankering after a replacement for my old Howard Low D for some years (and in particular something a little more rewarding to play in the upper register) and almost (but not yet) giving up on my many years wait for a Copeland in SS, I recently read the reviews of the Resonance low D in Blackwood on pipersgrip.50webs.com. Apart from the weakness of the low E, it seemed like the whistle I was looking for. Since I play with the pipers grip, I contacted Sweetheart about availability of a model with an enlarged lower hole. I got an incredibly quick and helpful response from Ralph Sweet, who said that his son Walt (who designed the Resonance low D) was keen to experiment with this as an option. He got back to me a few days later saying that they had made a batch of 5 with straight holes and the enlarged lower hole and spacing between the two lower holes. I immediately ordered one (in laminate ‘Diamondwood’).
Its still early days, but my first impressions are that this is a really lovely whistle and pretty much what I was looking for. I won’t bother repeating what is in the excellent review on http://pipersgrip.50webs.com/SweetD.html - despite mine being in laminate (as opposed to Backwood) I agree with most of what was said there. The low D has a phenomenal ‘resonance’ that the low E (and several other notes above that) still lacks, but I feel that the volume of the low E of this new version is perfectly adequate, so it may redress the biggest deficiency noted in that review. This whistle is incredibly good in the upper second register and even plays the 3rd octave D very easily with 0xxxxx fingering, opening up a whole range of tunes to me that I have struggled with for years on a low D (and has always had me reaching for my little whistles!). I’ve not put a tuner on it, but it sounds well in tune to my ear across both registers.
I bought mine as a special order, but Ralph said that they would update the website to make this an official model in future and I note that they have now done so. The new hole spacing is a stretch - pipers grip only for most players I suspect. Fittingly, Sweetheart have labelled their new model as the ‘Pipers grip’ variant. Worth a look if, like me, you were otherwise worried about the weakness of the low E.
Dave