Review of Tully Whistles D Oomph

Whistle
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The D Oomph:

This is a beautiful, tunable(2piece), whistle made of brightly polished sterling silver, very light in weight and quite comfortable in the hands. The curved fipple is made of a material that its maker, Erik Tullberg (erik@tullberg.com, found on the Web at http://www.tullberg.com/tully/index.html) refers to as impregnated wood (one of several options), which sounds very nice and lets one go for a long time without have to clear the whistle of condensate. It is smoothly polished, has no taste and feels nice in the mouth and on the lips as well. After warming it up in my hands and blowing lightly through it, I was greeted by a lovely singing tone, leaning toward the flutish side but having a hint of breath in it. This keeps it sounding whistle-like, rather than like a recorder or flute. I would describe the overall sound as lyrical. A refined trad sound. I then played several scales, exercises and tunes, with and without ornamentation. The air requirements are quite easy on the lungs, and you’ll find that normal breathing suffices for long phrases, as opposed to the “I’m drowning” feeling that some whistles bring on or the “wow, 5 notes and I’m out already” that others have. Judicious use of breath control allows for note scooping and bending and for maintaining intonation on long notes. The upper registers require little more force than the lower, and the flip to the octave(s)is very smooth on nearly all notes. The range is quite impressive. It’ll do 2 octaves + easily, and when I say this I mean that the upper notes are actually controllable and useful, not screeching or full of air. The lowest two notes require somewhat less air than the rest of the notes to be stable, but they still maintain acceptable volume. Speaking of volume, the whistle is described by it’s maker as being a real ear buster; I wouldn’t call it that, (my Susatos are louder, natch) but the upper range is louder than the lower which is at a very good volume all the same. Fingering this instrument is a delight. The spacing and hole width work great for my average sized male hands. Strangely, a lot of the crossing noises and other fingering noise that I hear on other whistles I have are absent here. This may have something to do with the excellent note response time, as notes seem to fall out easily and smoothly in a way that I haven’t experienced before. Flute vibrato as well as finger vibrato only enhance the already sweet tone. The b7 note sounds best fingered oxxxxo, but is somewhat weak. I prefer to half-hole it where I can anyway. One caution on fingering is that when switching from 1st octave D to E (oxxxxx to xxxxxo), if you’re really sloppy you’ll get some notes above the second octave that might have the neighborhood dogs coming to your door. All in all a finely crafted instrument, priced (with shipping from Germany) at $150.00 US. I should also mention that my dealings with Mr. Tullberg have been exceptionally pleasant, as I am extremely picky and he has always responded with grace and has been more than willing to accommodate said picky-ness.

Review by Steve Smith

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Interesting, Steve. I’d love to have the chance to try one of Erik’s whistles (are you coming through Montreal on your way to Alaska Erik?)

Questions you might like to answer (Steve):

  • what is the recommended cross-fingering for C-natural? If it’s oxx-ooo, what happens when you use oxx-xox (is the note unacceptably flat)?
  • when you are playing the high B, does putting your sixth finger on the bottom tonehole affect the pitch or tone?
  • (if you are able to play rolls crisply) what happens when you play repeated short rolls on the high A and B, or cuts in fast passages on the same notes? Does the sound break up, does the whistle squawk?
  • as above, but with the bottom finger down?
  • when you play the first bar of the reel “The boys of Ballisodare” at speed (which involves the passage G2 dG eGdG) and you don’t lift your top finger for the high D, does the note fail to sound cleanly?

These are among the first things I test on any high-end or loud whistle I am given to try. I consider failure in any of these departments (i.e. a yes answer to any of the above questions) a bug that puts the instrument beyond consideration for me.

PS Is your name really Steve Smith? The Steve Smith?

Steve Jones

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Mr. Jones,

Here’s a point by point reply:

The b7 note (C nat)is best fingered oxxxxo or half holed. oxxxox is just a little too sharp.

No.

It does not break up or squawk.

Same.

It will play that just fine if you have good breath control.

Yes, my name is really Steve Smith, but I’m not sure who you’re referring to. I’m for sure not the Steve Smith from Journey.

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Wow! Sounds very impressive. I’ve been thinking about one of these silver whistles for a while and you’re tempting me.

Couple of quick questions Steve:

  1. I only ever finger Cnat OXXOOO - are you saying that this fingering doesn’t work on the Tully?
  2. Erik states on his site that his whistles come in 3 levels: gentle, regular and “session”. Which one is yours? (He recommends the middle one unless you’re a regular sessionist [I’m not])

Cheers
Nick

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Nick,

The best C nat fingering for this whistle is oxxxxo. The oxxooo fingering is too sharp to be of practical use. I half hole the B hole any way (sheesh, that looks weird in print)95% of the time.

My whistle is the session model, now referred to as the Oomph. I’d go for that model even if you don’t play sessions, unless you need a quieter whistle.

Steve Smith

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Sorry, Mr. Jones, Montreal is not doable this summer. I think that the closest we get is a 1/2 hour layover in Minneapolis (though we have 1 1/2 in Denver). Maybe this winter I’ll be trying to find someplace warm to go and Montreal will come up as a possiblity :wink:

Actually, I am in the lower 48 from 17 July to 5 August. I’ll be in Custer, SD bringing whistling freedom to all of South Dakota. I was going to try to needle my way into the Rocky Mountain Boy’s (and female mice) get-together, but it’s the weekend of my grandfather’s 80th birthday.

So you are all welcome to come visit me.

Oh, maybe this would be a good place to make an announcement (I’ll also see if Dale will send it out via newsletter). I will be in transit from the 8th of July until sometime at the end of August so I will be very unreliable as far as answering e-mails is concerned.

A happy summer to everyone.

Erik

p.s. (And - Thank you, Mr. Smith, for saying such nice things about my whistle. :slight_smile: )

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I have a “regular” Tully, and like it a lot. It is fairly quiet, which is what I was looking for. The silver really knocks your eyes out when you first open the whistle case ! A terrific value for the dollar. Get one!

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Doh!! Now I’m confused…is it regular or session? And I still am uncertain about the Cnat fingering…help!

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Mental note: never change product names.

OK, so here’s what happened. I used to just have 2 choices: Solioquy and Session, but I had a lot of people say, “Man your Session is blowing my ears out,” so I added one in between the Solioquy and the Session which I thought had a more approriate session volume, so I named it the Session and renamed the old Session to Oomph (mainly because I thought it was a funny name).

So, Paul has a Session and Steve has an Oomph. I recommend the Session because it’s a nice middle volume and so can be used in many circumstances but some folks, like Steve, really like the louder voice. And with the louder voice also comes a little more sonority.

:slight_smile: Erik

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Thanks Erik - and the Cnat fingering? Call me a duffer, but I find anything other than OXXOOO a bit tough

Nick

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I wish I could vacillate, but the OXXOOO fingering does not work well without really backing off the note. At one time I was happy with it but have found that you really have to back off too much. If you want to hear a sample, I used it in the Road to Lisdoonarva on my web site so that folks could hear it in use. You can really hear when I hit it too hard and it goes sharp.

I know, somebody’s going to ask, “Well, why not make it so it has a good OXXOOO since so many people use it.”

Ok, first answer is maybe I should. I have made a tube that has a good OXXOOO fingering (where are those measurements again? :wink: ).

But let me tell you why I don’t make it my standard. First, I’ve decided that I’m a half-holer. In order to make the cross fingering flat enough I had to make the first hole smaller than I like. This gives less freedom in some slurring and half-holing of that note. It also destroys the C#.

Further, I have yet to play a whistle that has a Cnat that sounds good as a long tone (with the possible exception of my Overton, though it is still weaker than the adjoining notes). So for long tones I use the half-hole anyway (which sounds better with a bigger first finger hole). I guess that you could say that I’ve designed my whistle to sound good in the long tones across the board, but have a weak Cnat for the 4% of the tunes that are in 1 sharp.

As for my preferred Cnat finger, I use OXXXOX. It works best for me when in transition to other notes and while still a bit sharp, as Steve suggested, it is tolerable to me. I may be able to bring the OXXXOX fingering down a bit (whistle making is a state of continual experiment) but thus far I haven’t like the results.

If I do use the cross fingering I will typically use OXXXOX when going down the scale and half-hole when going up… with finite variations in between.

That said, if public outcry is great, perhaps I’ll offer OXXOOO tube as standard.

Sorry, I have a habit of making short things long. As important as it is to be understood, it is more important to not be misunderstood :slight_smile:

Erik

[ This Message was edited by: ErikT on 2002-06-19 15:58 ]

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I’ve found that OXX XOX is the best cross-fingering for almost all my cylindrical whistles (Oak, Feadog, Generation, and Mack Hoover); I’m not sure offhand about Acorn and Susato and Walton’s, but I suspect it’s true for them too, because I was certainly never happy with the Cnat I was getting before I changed fingerings. Of course, on the flute, it has to be OXX OOO, but I mostly manage not to mix them up. I do still sometimes play OXX OOO for certain runs where Cnat is a blip of a passing note.

Thus stand the unwanted observations of another beginner. :wink:

–ChrisA

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I am the happy owner of the Solioquy.
From a whistle maker’s view, it’s the prettiest of quiet whistles! More overtones than the Hoover narrow bore, but very pleasing! oxoxxx works for me in both octaves for the flatted seventh. Thanks to Bill Stine (Byll) for turning me on to that fingering, which I’m trying to work into my whole array.
A Tully is a must!
Mack

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Eric…as a fairly new player, take this for what it’s worth…

Stick to what you have that works for you and keeps you happy. I started out doing oxx ooo for cnat but now that I have an array of whistles (WhoA is contracted from logging on here) there is no way to keep straight which fingerings work on which whistles.

So now I half hole and am doing very well at it, if I do say so myself! :smiley: It seems to be a very natural thing for me, happens without thought!

That’s my 2 cents worth…which being Canadian, that isn’t much!

Deb

ps…I thought the oomph was from someone getting hit with a whistle!

I’ll become even more undignified than this!
(King David, II Samuel 6)

[ This Message was edited by: WhistlerWannaBe on 2002-06-19 21:34 ]

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S’truth mate! Why are whistle makers always such wonderfully nice people?! Thanks for your reply Erik, hugely helpful.

I’ve learnt from this that my beginners Cnat fingering of OXXOOO is limited - my teacher also uses half-holing (a lot in fact for other notes too), so it’s time to increase fingering versatility methinks. And if successful, I shall order a session or an oomph or whatever it’s called.