I’ve had my new O’Brien Rover for a week now, so I thought I’d write a bit about it.
This is the new (and improved) 3-piece high D that David has just begun making. The joint between the mouthpiece and the second section has an external collar, an inch or so long, which acts as a tuning slide. This collar is attached to the first section, and the second section fits into it. The lower end of the second section has an internal bit of tubing that fits into the top of the third section. (It’s good that David includes a diagram, or else I might still be trying to figure it out.)
When it’s assembled, everything fits together very snugly, with no wobbling.
Each section is about 4-4.5 inches long, and the whistle comes with a nice little tweed pouch with a pocket for each section. When it arrived in the mail, I didn’t realize what it was at first, as the box was just 5" x 4" x 1". Broken down and in its pouch, the Rover fits even in the front pocket of my jeans. Given that this is a very strongly built whistle, there’s really no excuse for not having it with you at all times.
The whistle is nickel-plated copper, with a black Delrin fipple. As can be seen from the [u]photos on the O’Brien Web site[/u], the nickel plating is quite dark–more like my Serpent Village Smithy than like my Oak (which is more like shiny chrome). The tube seems to have been given a brushed (spun) finish before plating, giving it a subtle texture. The plating is a bit uneven on the back of the first section, and there are a few tiny dings and scratches, giving the whistle a slightly rustic look. However, due to the dark brushed finish, none of this stands out much, being noticeable only on close inspection.
Overall, I like the look of it. The shape is nice and crisp, and I find the color and the texture quite attractive. I suspect that it will age more nicely than any of my brass whistles, and if it does develop a patina, it should look very natural. (I’ve tried to resist polishing my brass whistles, but I just don’t like the color of the patina.)
This probably has the widest bore of any of my high D whistles. (I judge this by how far I can shove my little finger into the end of the tube.) At 104.4 grams, it is also my heaviest high D, beating the Village Smithy by 3.4 grams.
The whistle is in tune with itself, and OXXOOO works fine for C-natural. Balance between octaves is good, up to second octave G. After that, it gets pretty loud. I’d rate the overall volume as moderately loud. Back pressure is moderate, too, but it doesn’t take a lot of air to play.
For such a heavy metal whistle, condensation doesn’t seem to be much of a problem, as I haven’t experienced any clogging. (And I haven’t even applied the soap treatment to the windway yet.)
At first, the tone was quite noisy, with something of a white-noise hiss–especially in the upper octave. I went looking for opinions on other O’Brien whistles, to see if maybe this was a fluke, and found [u]this comment by Wanderer[/u]: "David suggested to me that the best tone is gotten by blowing directly down the windway with the whistle straight out of your mouth. "
I tried this, and most of the hiss went away. Playing it this way also seems to reduce the volume a bit, and evens out the octaves somewhat, too. It feels a bit odd, though, with the whistle held out much more horizontal to the ground than I’m used to. In fact, it sounds best when the angle is such that air coming out of the window tickles my nose. At that point, the tone is more like my tweaked Clarke original, or the Village Smithy.
When I play the few fast tunes I know, the tone seems entirely appropriate. It’s only on the slow airs and songs that I play most of the time that I find that it doesn’t fit my personal taste. The fact that my favorite whistle for airs is my Burke narrow-bore aluminum should put this in perspective.