Trying this again, since my first post disappeared!
When Heritage Music lowered its price on Elfsong’s manufactured whistle, I could no longer resist. For approximately 38.00 got the whistle with a cloth bag shipped to my home.
The whistle looks lovely; mine is black. The body is made of copper and the plastic head makes it tunable. I pushed the head down so that it covered half of the engraved D on the tube to bring it to concert pitch. The tone is strong and clear without much chiff. It is a loud whistle and is not for you if you like a reedy sound. Very easy player, very responsive.
The asterisk: I cannot get the highest notes to play clearly (wants to include the lower octave) unless I am blowing really, really hard and tight, and the result is not beautiful; it would fail Dale’s Si Beg, um Sheebig Shee, argghh–you know, the test where that B is really important!!! On the other hand, the whistle held its own on all kinds of tunes outside yesterday when playing with my son (on guitar). It was very windy here and the whistle still sounded great.
I spoke to the folks at Heritage Music who said this trait is characteristic of this type of whistle. But because its pros outweigh its cons, I recommend this whistle. If you’re like me, you probably have certain whistles that you use for certain tasks. This one certainly has a place in my collection. I’ve been having a lot of fun playing it.
Haven’t used, or even seen in person, an Elfsong whistle, but have you tried: XOOXXX fingering for the sustained notes on your second octave B? This works quite well on some of my simple system instruments (whistle and flute).
That does seem to work–not much difference. Both fingerings are sounding fine this very second. Have to say I’m already feeling as though I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s a lovely whistle, and I’m very pleased with it. The B may not be “pretty,” but it’s certainly functional. It’s a nice, clear,loud, easy-to-play whistle.
I have no experience with these “mass produced” Elfsongs, but the Elfsongs that Sandy has made for me a while ago are lovely whistles that exhibit absolutely no octave imbalance and are quite lovely in the upper octave as well.
I have been fortunate to visit with Sandy as i live on Vancouver Island. When i found out about her and her whistles i pretty much dropped in on her after a quick phone call to see if that was okay. I had an absolutely wonderful time. She was a gracious host and walked me through the steps of making my own high d whistle which i did with her help and guidance. After playing some of the ones she had made (which sounded fantastic) i left with the self made whistle and some great memories. It was a wonderful day well spent. Of all the whistles i tried not one was really hard to blow in the second octave or reach the high b. Of course there is a little bit of extra push needed but a sustained clear note was achieved. Her designs may have changed over the years im not sure but having met her i can say she would want the owner to be completely happy w her product. Might be worth contacting her.
Cheers
Jason.
I haven’t tried Sandy’s handmade offerings, but I think they need to be considered separately from the “Jasper” manufactured line. The two are different in design, materials, and fipple geometry.
My description of my Jasper D whistle is different from the OP’s. The tone is light and airy, somewhat similar to the Clarke original, which gives the impression of a fairly quiet whistle more suited to private or amplified use than to sessions. I wouldn’t call it reedy at all, but rather soft and flutey, with very little chirp or bite. It responds best to very light breath pressure (but see below), and tends to blow sharp when pushed. Sandy has confirmed to me that her voicing favors a gentle breath, and she voices even the manufactured heads individually.
With the head at the marked line position on the tube, the whistle is flat of A440, and the 2nd register is quite flat to the 1st register. As the OP mentioned, pushing the head down over the “D” marking brings it to concert pitch - though requiring restraint in the 1st register and a stronger push in the 2nd register for best intonation. This seems to be a design issue.
The high B problem exists on mine as well. There is a rather nasty undertone which disappears only when pushed quite hard. The xooxxx fingering just exacerbates the problem.
Interestingly, my Jasper C whistle is not as quirky. The whistle is in tune at the marked line, the octave intonation is good, the registers are fairly well balanced, and the high B takes only a slight push to kill the undertone.
As for Heritage music and “this trait [what trait?] is characteristic of this type of whistle”, I’m afraid that’s just nonsense. There are plenty of cylindrical bore whistle that play perfectly well. It’s a matter of hole layout and voicing.
But I’d say if you like the Clarke-like tone and gentle approach in a very hefty copper whistle, the Jasper may be of interest. And Sandy is certainly a lovely person to deal with.
Revising this slightly, after giving it another toot …
On mine, pushing the head down over the “D” mark to give good intonation actually sets the whistle around 20 cents sharp overall. It’s closer to A440 at the marked line, but with both octave intonation and note-to-note intonation problems.
I have not yet tried any of the Elfsong whistles, but I have been following this with some interest as I have been curious about them for some time. That said, I thought I would throw this out there:
I am someone who has been making whistles out of various metals for several years. Initially, I got involved with doing this out of a desire to make a quieter whistle, and so my earlier whistles require a gentler breath. I have noted 2 things through this time -
1.) - on large bore whistles (1/2" copper pipe has a very large bore compared to most other whistle tubes) it can be difficult to achieve consistent intonation without sufficient backpressure at the head, and
2.) - whistles with heavier/thicker walls made of non-ferrous metals can be inconsistent for tuning unless at the approximately the same temperature they were when cut or voiced. Indeed, my earlier whistles were all non-tunable one-piece whistles, and I quickly learned that if the metal was not sufficiently warmed when cut for the bell note, the resulting whistle would end up approximately 20 cents sharp across the scale after 5 or 10 minutes of play.
After reading MTGuru’s post and revision, I would say that he observed the same thing, possibly without realizing it.
