Obrien Whistle Review

Whistle
1

Hi Everyone!

A few weeks ago, a request went out for people to evaluate whistles made by David O’Brien. I was one of those lucky enough to be asked.

I received the whistle about a week and half after replying to the thread, so ship time (for me at least) was very timely.

The first thing I noticed even before opening the shipping pack, was the weight. It has a nice heft to it!

Taking the whistle out, I was struck by how nice it looked. Nickel plated copper. Looking into the whistle, the nickel next to the copper makes a very stunning contrast.

Its weight felt comfortable to my hands. Not so heavy as to cause pain, numbness or decreased play time; also not so light as to “forget” the whistle is there!

Playing it was a dream! A beautiful, clear tone and very good volume! Not at all breathy. (please note, I play susato, Feadog, Oak, Generation…) This is a a whistle that on its own has a great sound, but in a group session will certainly be heard. the first day, I played for almost 3 hours and only towards the end did I notice any clogging, and that seemed to only affect the low D - making it bubble and gurgle, and that was an easy fix.

As for playing in tune, all Ihad to do was pull the head joint out less than 1/4 inch.

Pehaps the most remarkable thing about this whistle was that when I played it for my mother she actually enjoyed hearing it! My mother, BTW, is 81 YO and has significant hearing loss in both ears and must wear a hearing aid in each ear. Most times, I cannot play around her, as the notes come across as high, shrill and downright painful. This was not the case with David’s whistle. I tested out a few “high noted” tunes like “A Good Natured Man”, “Rights of Man” and “Belfast Hornpipe” . The response was:
“Darn, you’re good! I didn’t know you could that good!” (thanks mom!)

The whistle was not returned. I am now its proud owner!

For those of you who are going to the NE Gathering on the 23rd, I WILL have it with me. Please see me if you are interedted in trying it out. I am certain David will appreciate the feedback, too.

For more info on his whistles, go to:

www.obrienwhistles.com

Peach

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See you on the 23rd.

Philo

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Thanks for the nice review. I especially liked the story about your Mother’s reaction!

Best, John

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Ditto

5

I also reviewed one and David told me NOT to post on any of the boards. I have to say I disagree with almost every thing you say and that I have not enjoyed the Whistle as much as you have although it is growing on me but in my opinion it is way too breathy and clogs too easily for short also has to much back pressure. I will stick to my Burke.

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Mine was in line with his review. very sweet and pure sound as long as you were holding it fairly horizontally. The angle made a big difference, as has been discussed ad nauseum on this board.

7

What kind of range can you easily play with this whistle? How many octaves? Low “D” up to what?

8

I had a sort of similar experience as Avery (with a few exceptions). The whistles (European RAW) where nice whistles, quite heavy and with a solid feel. The apperance was quite crude, very hand made looking, charming in a way (sort of like my beloved M&E flute) but not as neat as some of my other whistles.
I could easily see how people could enjoy them for what they are, but I found them way to breathy with way to low back pressure and low volume. I was very surprised to read this review which was almost the exact opposite of my own experience. I’m sticking with my Syns (which are almost on the completely other end of the spectrum in the whistle world, neat looking, pure sound, high back pressure and nice volume).

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I have a couple of his whistles and several fipple designs for review.

He builds fipples on two basic designs, one has a relatively large windway and low resistance. The other, and my favorite, has a very tight windway, no air at all in the sound, has very high resistance and high backpressure.

A review will be forthcoming, suffice it to say for now that I like his high-resistance design very much. It has some unique qualities.

As to the range question, the whistles play easily up to B in the 2nd octave. C-sharp can be a problem, though. I haven’t yet tried to play above the C-sharp.

–James

10

Has anyone else noticed how the OXX XXX fingered 2nd D sounds really sharp on the O’Brien? It did atleast on both whistles I had here for review.

11

I’ve had two O’Briens..the first sent to me was a lot rougher in appearance than the second. Both of them were fairly breathy, though the first was way more so. Even when played sticking straight out of my face.

12

I did. You know they call Syns the poor man’s Burke which makes me wonder why I have a Burke but actually the Syn has a bit more edge and has different playing characteristics but yes it is on the other end of the spectrum like Burkes are. Mine is actually starting to grow on me I don’t know if it is laziness but I am going to keel it till the gathering and I might put it on the swap table or just keep it but I have enough Whistles that i don’t play.

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What type of fipple did he send out for review? He makes them in clear lucite, black delrin or copper. I sent for a clear lucite fippled headpiece and three tubes–Bb, Eb, and E. I’m very pleased. I’m pretty picky about the sound I want, and he delivered it. He worked from the emails I sent to create a real custom-made piece.

In clear lucite, I didn’t notice too much difference in angle in regards to breathiness, but there was some difference in key. It was a bit sharper held down. But it’s tunable anyway, so I really don’t care about that.

I like the look of the whistles. The copper and nickel were spectacular together. The etching is definitely done by hand, but it’s all on the underside, so nobody sees that but me. And I like it. It reminds me that this whistle was made by a human, not a machine. He’s perfected his round tone holes. The headpiece looked a bit worked, but added to he character of the whistle, really. David’s logo on the top is classy.

Bottom line. Playing a good whistle should always leave you smiling. This whistle definitely makes me smile.

14

I’ve had a set of o’briens for about 4 months and i’m not overly sold on them. Way too breathy for me and they do tend to clog fairly quickly. I really only ever play the ones in keys that I don’t have any other whistles in (E, Eb, and Bb). I will say that the Bb is the best of the lot, having quite a nice round tone actually, and the set of 5 bodies (E,Eb,D,C,Bb) and head was less than 85 bucks so it wasn’t exactly a big investment. Sounds to me like there may be still quite a bit of a variance in tonal quality from whistla to whistle.

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It was a delrin fipple.