Have you found one?
I’m searching for whistles up in the key of high F or high G (above soprano D) that sound excellent. They must be extremely rare! I’ve only found one model played online (YouTube) that sounds quite good (Anak), but surely there are more somewhere. Do you have any experience with them at a quality level guaranteed to be much higher than the noisy toys Generation makes?
I had both the high F and high G by Generation, and they didn’t qualify as musical instruments. I need instruments for professional quality recording, with precise notes with nice character, top to bottom of the octaves, no breaking apart of the notes, little chiff. Not too concerned about loudness, because that’s taken care of by microphones. I want the tone to have a bright Irish whistle character and not drift towards sounding like a recorder, so not a Susato.
I presume such an instrument would take a high-end maker some time to R&D and be made with a metal or plastic headjoint, so I’d expect the cost to be at least $65 Canadian. If the tone and playability are there, then it’s musical and worth the cost.
You could contact Rob Gandara from Carbony whistles. Maybe he can make them on special order. Carbony whistles are among the most professional whistles I ever played. https://carbony.com/
I like my Gen brass high F, (the high G is a bit tight for my fingers), I find them fun whistles, but I guess you’re probably right about the recording quality of them.
I have a high F from David Furman in Argentina. It is excellent. I play it seldom but it has a lovely sound. Mine is made of aluminum. I don’t know if he uses other materials.
Certainly you’re familiar with the professional quality recordings of Mary Bergin? Who, being possibly the best whistle player alive, requires a higher level of performance from her whistles than any of the rest of us do? Have you heard the flawless tuning and voicing of her Generation F?
Now personally I’m a Low Whistle person, and I don’t often play whistles above High D. But were I to need a High F it would be my old Generation, which plays quite nicely.
Yes, ditto that. I briefly posted a link to Bergin’s recording of Mo Mhuinín Bán but took it down deciding this was not worth the effort. Instead I have been playing my little Fs over the weekend and thought they were lovely little instruments. Ofcourse you have to be able to play them.
My Gen. F plays nicely as well. Bird-like, pure tone. The high G I avoid playing, but it’s mostly because it’s too small for my fingers, and it’s just a too high register for my liking. It’s not that there’s anything particularly wrong with it.
Same here. The high F was actually my favorite Gen of all, but its application is of course limited. I suppose it’s possible that there are bad ones out there. But to sweepingly say that Generations don’t qualify as instruments is an assertion that is hard to defend. I will second the recommendation, RoberTunes, that you give Mary Bergin a listen.
Surprisingly to me, the high F was easier on the ears than the high Eb.
I think the reason it is easier on the ears might be the reduced sound pressure. I think it is not only frequency that matters. For me–who has an already damaged left ear and occasional tinnitus (very slight) a low D can be as annoying or even worse than a high D just because of the larger air-column and therefore bigger pressure–especially in the 2nd octave of a low D. What helps is a very breathy whistle. Horrible is a very pure sound (one reason I gave up ocarina–it became unbearable without earplugs and IMO playing with earplugs somehow defeats the purpose of playing an instrument).
Having no point of reference about the B&S make, I did a quick Google and the first thing I found was a 2007 C&F thread by jemtheflute asking questions about them, unfortunately with no reply:
On my laptop the thread’s pics are no longer viewable, and the internet turns up nothing I can hang my hat on. It would seem to me that the mysterious B&S brand is long out of business, and its product is going to be unavailable except by sheer happenstance. Whatever the drift of this thread, the OP was asking for more ready options.
There have been fairly extensive threads about Barnett and Samuels at some point, as far as I remember anyway. They sold whistles under different B&S brands I think. I may have a few B&S Dulcet ones here. I’ll have a closer look tomorrow, maybe.
Yes, brainfart. My mind wasn’t fully engaged when I posted above post last night.
They are really the standard late 19th century (and well into the 20th) whistle, there were many and they were all very similar. Willie Clancy had a little F of that type and he used it to record some of the finest whistle playing ever.
Anyway, I thought I had a B&S but don’t seem able to locate it, maybe I was wrong, the Dulcets I mentioned weren’t B&S either so probably best to ignore my previous post completely.
Here are a few examples of the type though, all Fs. Three different editions of the Generation F, a Wallis and a generic anon one. All fine players in their own right:
I’ve found some high whistles with some appealing tone and playability, at least as shown in YouTube performance. (I’ll check into the Humphrey as well). The Ceol Pro and SilverStar models (made by Nick Metcalf), the Anak, the Carbony and an unknown (still waiting a response from the player in the video). Still searching!
I’d like to see what kind of high F would show up from makers like Killarney, Chieftain, Burke, Alba, Milligan, or even Waltons for that matter. Walton’s could call it the “Guinness Stir Stick” and serve it in pubs in a pint.
