I’ve had an Ormiston high D for a week now, so here’s a first impressions review.
Build: well made - at the standard one would expect from a whistle of that price, comparable to the Rose in quality. In other words, very nicely made. The labium is beautifully cut, it seems using a very small chisel which has left a series of perfectly parallel grooves in the top surface. The silverwork is good, and the tuning slide is quite secure.
Handling: the main annoyance of this whistle is the mouthpiece - it has an undercut which can be closed by the lower lip if you don’t take care to keep it open. I haven’t seen this design on any other whistle. Phil Hardy mentions this on his video review, and while the beak seems to be longer than it was on the one he reviewed, nonetheless the undercut is an irritating feature at first. I think doing away with this feature would improve the instrument’s tone by allowing for smoother airflow as well.
Tone: well, this is the difficult part. The voicing is very open, with a windway which does not taper vertically towards the labium, so that breath control is critical. When I first played it, I was disappointed by this - being used to the Rose. What it means is that you have to find the right breath pressure for each note and play it at that pressure. At least, that was the first impression. I also wasn’t that impressed originally by the quite breathy tone. However, having played it a bit now, I’ve found that once your breath pressure reaches a certain plateau, the pitch stabilises and you can push it quite a bit harder for volume control. The other surprising thing I’ve found is that there is a sweet spot pressure-wise at which the breathiness of the tone disappears and it sounds quite reedy and focused. These are qualities I prize in a whistle. So, it takes a bit of getting used to, but if you play it the way it wants to be played, it has a good solid tone without too much breathiness and quite a lot of volume control. You have to persevere, though, and adapt to it quite a bit.
One thing I have noticed is that a high tongue position with rather tight lips, and holding the whistle horizontal improves the tone enormously - any turbulence in the air stream leads to breathiness and lack of focus. You want to be delivering the air as directly to the labium as possible. As I mentioned above, I think the mouthpiece undercut has a negative effect in this area.
Intonation: I find it plays well in tune with the headjoint pulled out about a centimetre. The Cnat fingers oxx, but with a rather weak (and hence sharp sounding) tone which is improved slightly by putting down the fifth or sixth finger, depending on how loud you’re playing it. The top C# fingers oxxx.
Response: very responsive, absolutely no chiff or chirp except when crossing registers - B to D, for instance.
When I first got this whistle, having waited quite a while for it, I was a bit disappointed by the tone, intonation and volume control. It definitely wants to be played in a particular way and you have to discover that way, which takes some time - and I wouldn’t say I’m totally on top of it yet. But it has grown enormously on me; I seem to find some new aspect of it every time I play it.
If I’d picked it up in a shop I certainly wouldn’t have bought it; as it is, I think it’s going to be an excellent whistle when I’ve really learnt to play it.