Overtons are great whistles, of course, and the sound is amazing and special: so much character and depth to it.
But that’s not the only reason why everyone should own an Overton: They are made & sold by the most wonderful people, Colin & Brigitte Goldie.
A little over a year ago, when that whole whistle thing hit me like a truck, I bought a (Bernard Overton) Overton hi D second hand. What a whistle! I was in love, and have lusted after more Overtons ever since.
The only thing about that whistle was that it was a tad sharp, too much to ignore when other musicians couldn’t tune up to me a bit. After buying a C and an A from Colin in Fall, I got to know Brigitte & Colin and I asked them about my sharp hi D. They told me to send it on over, and I did. Colin agrees that it’s sharp and unfortunately there is nothing that can be done about it.
And here is why you need an Overton: Colin is sending me a free replacement hi D from the batch he just finished. I just had the nicest email from Brigitte. I offered to pay for it, but they wouldn’t hear of it. Such amazing customer service! It makes me happy to be playing wonderful whistles made & sold by wonderful people.
I haven’t taken the Overton plunge yet (just a matter of time, and finances) but I will soon get a Sindt C whistle thanks to Brigitte. The seller didn’t realize his email wasn’t on the post and was waiting for contact via email (he just thought no one was interested). After three pages of posts Brigitte evidently had his email on file and dropped him a line about the sale. Now that was truly nice. Almost as nice as One-Tin-Soldier
I don’t know if they melt down and re-make whistles, but I highly doubt that Colin would send out a whistle he knew to be badly out of tune. The Goldies have too good a reputation to risk it on something dumb like that.
Colin made a slightly out of the ordinary whistle for me, and when it was ready he called to discuss how it turned out and to play it over the phone for me before sending it out for anodizing. Now that’s customer service!
Long and short of it, I’m thrilled with my Goldie Overton whistle, and think the Goldies are just great folks to do business with.
I bought an Overton from a store, an aluminum high D (it was the only one he had… I was surprised to find it). It’s very hard to play, especially in the upper register, and takes a lot of air force (when I go from the Overton to my other whistles it takes a while to adjust). I didn’t love it in the store, but thought maybe I would grow into it, and bought it partly just because it was an Overton. My teacher played it and did OK (I suspect she could make anything sound beautiful). For me, trying to learn on it, with songs that quickly shift into the high register (the Ash Plant), was torture. After having it for a couple of weeks, I’m still not happy with it. It’s not just that it’s hard to play… it sounds a bit like I’m playing a pipe instead of a whistle. Maybe I’ll grow into it in time (I’m a relative beginner). Or maybe it’s an old design or something, dunno. I also don’t like it because it’s not tunable. I’ve since bought a brass high D from Michael Burke, and I love it, though the C natural is a tad sharp (well, more than a tad, almost in the C# range… three fingers is a bit better, but not much). Actually, I was pretty happy with the cheaper whistles (Sweetone, Meg, Clare), but practicing over and over and over, I just wanted something with a bit more sophisticated sound.
On 2003-01-26 00:10, sboag wrote:
I’ve since bought a brass high D from Michael Burke, and I love it, though the C natural is a tad sharp (well, more than a tad, almost in the C# range… three fingers is a bit better, but not much).
Try using less air pressure. On a Burke D, two fingers should be okay for a short C natural, and three fingers should be practically perfect. Out of curiosity, which model do you have?
sboag, an Overton whistle can take a lot of air pressure and a good bit of control. They’re generally not thought of as a whistle for beginners. I was frustrated by my Overton at first, but sticking with it has been rewarding, and I think it has made me a better player.
Overtons are not for everyone, but then, which whistle is? That said, I have nine at the moment so they’re certainly for me. They can be a bit difficult in the upper register but how much so differs from whistle to whistle and is something you can adjust to. The tonal richness and consistency from (for me) low D up to high Eb makes them perfect for layering whistle parts—I know in advance exactly what I’m going to get.
Some of my Overtons are amongst my very favourite whistles. My high Eb and Bb whistles come to mind at the moment but others really excite me from time to time. I like to have a choice of whistles in all the keys I commonly play in. I love my Copeland low D and my Burkes and I’m fast getting to love my Sindts and I have others on the way, notably Grinter and Busman. But Overton is the only whistle I have in every commonly played key—so far.
It’s interesting for me to read the discussion on Overton whistles, because I, too, have found that the one I had was not for me, for exactly the same reasons ~ a bit too temperamental in the upper octave than what I prefer… However, mine was a low D and I have discovered that in general, I don’t handle the low whistles very well, prefering the sound of my flute instead. I am enormously happy that there are so many many different whistle choices out there, because there is definately something for everyone’s taste, and the quest is often the most fun part!
Mary
Az: LOL. Actually, Colin will be sending the out-of-tune whistle back to me along with the new one, I think. (And Brigitte told me once that he always makes more in a batch, so I don’t think I’ll be pushing anyone back on the waiting list.)
EDIT: Colin won’t send you back your old whistle if he replaces it with a new one. Just found that out.
About playing Overtons: They are very different from your Generations, Feadogs, and other cheap whistles. They are also different from Burkes & Sindts and Copelands. They require a lot of air pressure and that is the something to get used to. They also are loud whistles (not as bad as a Susato SB D, though). I haven’t played every whistle there is by a long stretch, but in my experience Overtons are comparatively hard whistles to play. BUT: whistles are usually so easy to play that to get a great sound out of an Overton is still a piece of cake compared to, say, an oboe or a French horn. And learning how to play an Overton is sooooo worth it.
Two bits of advice for playing an Overton: Remember that it takes a lot of pressure, not a lot of air. Don’t try to push lots of air through the whistle, but brace yourself against the whistle: support the breath from the diaphram and “lean into” the whistle. (And don’t be afraid of the volume in second octave).
Second bit of advice: If you are struggling with it, call Colin and let him tell you how to do it. He is the man, and you’ll be so happy for having done it.
\
/bloomfield
[ This Message was edited by: Bloomfield on 2003-01-26 10:05 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Bloomfield on 2003-01-31 10:44 ]
On 2003-01-26 00:57, Ridseard wrote:
Out of curiosity, which model do you have?
D Brass Pro Narrow Bore
You’re right that with less pressure the C natural can be in tune. In any case I don’t hear any problem when I play (for instance, “Duke of Leinster”), so maybe I’m naturally using less pressure when I play vs. when I test with a chromatic tuner. As I said, I love it and believe it will be my whistle of choice until, maybe in a few years, I graduate to something really fancy, like an Abell. On the other hand, by that time I’ll probably be ready for the Irish flute, and maybe a few low whistles, so maybe I’ll just play my Burke forever.
On 2003-01-26 13:02, sboag wrote:
D Brass Pro Narrow Bore
Of all my whistles (including three other Burkes: a Brass Pro Session, an Aluminum Pro NB, and a WB Brass), the Brass Pro Narrow Bore is my favorite, and I think it always will be!
On 2003-01-26 13:02, sboag wrote:
You’re right that with less pressure the C natural can be in tune. In any case I don’t hear any problem when I play (for instance, “Duke of Leinster”)
That’s odd. The Duke of Leinster is a tune you definitely don’t need a C-natural for, and if I were you I’d steer well clear of them: it’s basically a pentatonic tune without Cs or Fs.
The only C I could see being used would be as part of a Bcd triplet to “fill in” the interval from B to d, and 99% of players would play that as a C#. It’s so fast that the pitch is unimportant, and anyway, since it’s a pentatonic tune, a C-natural wouldn’t be any more correct than a C#.
Edited to add: maybe you’re thinking not of the Duke but his wife, who has a very pronounced C-natural.
[ This Message was edited by: StevieJ on 2003-01-27 10:11 ]
Bottom line is that Colin is a whistlesmith that can make you a whistle just about anyway you want it, within the laws of whistle physics.
I think anybody out there thinking of buying an Overton should do so!! Just remember to order it directly from Brigitte and Colin so you can tell them what you want.
Oh, yeah, and even though this has been said before, I am going say that Brigitte and Colin are super people!!
