This is a review of the Black Diamond whistle (Erle Bartlett) which is currently touring Europe.
I’ve had this whistle for a few weeks now, and I’m just getting ready to send it on to the next person on the list but first I thought I’d put together a short review of the thing. I’ve only just started to get to know it, but already I can tell that this is a seriously good whistle and a really easy player.
The whistle is made of brass tubing, similar to Generation style whistles. The bore size is slightly larger than on a brass Generation whistle. It looks like it could be a millimetre larger or so just by looking at them side by side. There is a sticker attached to the brass tube in the old fashion Generation way, with the text “Black Diamond D”. The holes are larger than on a Generation by a few millimetres on each hole. The whole mouthpiece including the fipple plug is made of a nice looking and feeling black polymer material. The design of the mouthpiece is the only place where the whistle stands out from the cheapies in appearance. The mouthpiece is longer and extends further down the bore and it has the metal nail which is probably there to keep the fipple plug in place, similar to Erle’s Syn whistles. The fipple and window also looks very similar to the Syn for those of you who are familiar with that whistle, the differences being that the blade is made of polymer on the BD vs. aluminium on the Syn, and that the window is slightly narrower on the BD. The mouthpiece is easily removable for tuning, the fit is just right, and the tuning slide it creates is very long. The whistle is about 30 cents sharp on A (A=440) with the mouthpiece all the way in and it’s a full half step flat extended all the way (A becomes Ab). Of course, the internal tuning of the whistle suffers with the tuning slide extended so far, so practically, you can’t play it in-tune as a Db whistle. The material, as I said feels very nice, it has more of a flat finish than cheapie whistles, and it looks and feels more dense and costly.
All in all, the appearance of this whistle is that of a luxurious Generation style whistle, and interestingly, this is also very much true of the sound and playability of the whistle.
Here is a pic from the BD website:
The feel of the whistle when playing is nice and comfortable. It is a bit heavier than your average cheapie, especially at the mouthpiece end. The top end of the mouthpiece is almost flat at the bottom and it’s curved at the top, and it rests really comfortably between the lips. The wind way and fipple blade are slightly arched along the same line as the top of the mouthpiece. The holes are as I said, larger than on a Generation but they are spaced about the same, I find the size and spacing very comfortable.
Now, on to how the whistle plays. It plays sort of like a very good tweaked Generation, only slightly purer than the best ones I have turned out. It has a bit more backpressure as well, a fact which I welcome whole heartedly. It has less backpressure than my Syn’s though, and because I’m a backpressure maniac I prefer the Syn in that regard. The tone is a bit purer with less chiff than the Syn as well, but it is better balanced between the octaves, and it doesn’t take as hard blowing in the top octave to play in tune.
The response of the whistle is pretty average. It’s good, but somehow the ornamentations doesn’t come out quite as crisp as on the Syn. It’s still better than most tweaked cheapies I’ve tried. The volume is good as well. It can be played fairly quietly if one would like to, but it can also be pushed quite loud, a feature which I particularly like. This is a very versatile whistle, and it plays more like a flute than any other mid-range whistles I’ve played, except perhaps the Syn. The backpressure allows you to give extra push to some notes and play quieter on others. The only thing you have to mind is the pitch, because it dips quite easily if you don’t give the whistle enough air pressure.
Here are two soundclips (lousy sound-quality again I’m afraid. Haven’t gotten around to get a better home mic yet. Hope they will at least give you an idea of how the whistle sounds and preforms). They were also recorden in a hurry, so don’t mind the quality of the playing eighter.
To sum this up, this is a really nice whistle. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys the good tweaked Generation (or is in search of the one off, very good Generation but haven’t found it). To me this is like a cheapie with a more luxurious feel, it has purer tone, more versatility and backpressure than a cheapie, and it plays better. I don’t know where the price tag of this whistle will sit, but I suspect that it will be very affordable and a good whistle for the money.
However, I don’t like it as much as my Syn whistles (which I really love) and I do hope that Erle will continue making those as well. The Syn plays even better and has more of a premium feel with the shiny, thick aluminium, the tuning slide and the gorgeous tone. When I compare the Syn and the Black Diamond, the Black Diamond feels like a very, very good cheapie whistle, while the Syn feels like an under-priced top notch whistle. As good as the Black Diamond is compared to a Generation or other cheapie, it’s not as good as the Syn, and considering the incredibly low price of the Syn, it feels hard to justify a purchase of this whistle. But anyway, that’s just my opinion, and other people might well like this one even better than the Syn.
I really hope that Erle will offer both whistles, and he might well raise the price of his Syn’s a bit if he has to. They would be worth paying double the price that I paid for my Syn’s when I bought them. If they were priced such, the Black Diamond would be well worth paying the original price of the Syn for.
