Okay, let’s see what I can come up with here. Bill has not been told my review beforehand, mostly because I am making it up as I go 
but he told me “I expect only honesty, not holding anything back if you find something you don’t care for.”
So, here goes!
Oh, background on me for newcomers - I’m entirely too chattery on the board, been playing whistle for about a year, most people have probably heard clips since I like to upload for others to hear. I won this Serpent in a contest and was not obligated to review it.
First impressions
I received this whistle when I got to NY the last day of November. It was kinda nice to have a new whistle waiting at the end of a long drive! The whistle was in a soft bag, green with a brown leather drawstring. I’m not sure what the material is. Bill, you may want to consider making padded bags, as I don’t know how well this material would hold up over time.
First thought when I picked it up - This whistle is heavy! Without using any scales, just my two hands and other whistles I have around, I’d estimate the Brass Serpent is about the same weight as a Meg D, Dixon tunable D, and Feadog C all put together. You definitely KNOW when you’re holding one. But it didn’t seem to make it harder to play.
When the whistle arrived, the tuning slide was very loose - perhaps a bit too much material was machined out? Last night I put a bit of teflon tape on and now it is quite secure, and it was easy to adjust it into tune with the tape on, though I won’t be taking it apart anytime soon.
There is quite a bit of engraving on the whistle, which surprised me, as it’s my first decorated whistle. I knew to expect the “Serpent” logo on the back of the head, but there is also a celtic knot on the front and an etching of vines and flowers winding about the toneholes. The engraving is very well done, especially the tonehole parts. The celtic knot is a bit offcenter but that’s okay. The key (D) is stamped on the back (upside down, I think! 
) with a bit more engraving around it.
Sorry for the lousy picture, I’ll get more up eventually.
How does it play?
Well… listen! “Shores of Lough Gowna” - my apologies for the spelling.
http://www.rit.edu/~eeg6662/cf/serpent.mp3 (252 kb)
When I first got it I thought “Wow…this is Really breathy.” I normally play very pure whistles, so I wasn’t sure if I liked it. Also, since the blade is at such a low angle, I could feel my own breath on the fingers of my left hand as I played! I mentioned this to Bill in the chatroom one of the first nights of December and he said “When you teflon tape the tuning slide, it will become less breathy.” I was doubtful, but sure enough, he was right. I can still feel it a little bit but not at all like it was before. I agree with other reviewers in that the windway should be narrowed quite a bit - it takes a LOT of air to play and I felt like I was playing a low whistle in terms of how often I had to figure out where to breathe.
Hmm, what else can I say.. I don’t know what Bill’s regular price is for Brass Serpents. I do know that since I don’t really go for the breathy whistles, it wouldn’t be tops on my wish list. However, it is a very cool little whistle, and I like it, and I won’t be getting rid of it anytime soon!
I welcome other questions, here on the board or privately.
Edited to add the review - last night was just a sound clip and picture. This review was written when there were three replies to the thread.
[ This Message was edited by: avanutria on 2002-12-08 12:00 ]
I think Paul got one of those, too, so I’d better get him a new one before my whistles attain a Reputation for causing hyperventilation!! 