Bill Whedon sent me a brass prototype d whistle and has asked me to do a public review. I told him that I have positive and negative reactions to it, and he told me to go ahead with it. Let me say a little about my qualifications as a reviewer. I am not a professional musician, but I have been an amateur for a long time. I have been paid for singing and for playing whistle and flute. When it comes to sound, I know what I’m talking about. Of course, different people prefer different sounds (Steve Jones likes an airy sound, I like a pure sound). So some of my opinion is biased, as is every opinion. That said, I have played a couple hundred handmade whistles, and there are varying degrees of craftsmanship. Bill wants me to take this review seriously, and so I will. First will be my initial impressions of the design, then my impressions of the finish, and finally, my impressions of the playability.
When I first took the whistle out of the package, I noticed that it is substantial. The brass is thick-walled which makes it a little heavy, but not a problem in and of itself. I rather like the feel of the tubing. I don’t like the smell of brass, but that will not enter into the review, because most people do not have an aversion to brass. Upon initial examination, I noticed the blade and window. These are very well constructed! The angle of the blade is not clear in the following picture, but it looks just about perfect, and the shape of the blade seems to work perfectly with its surrounding walls. I am impressed with this aspect of the whistle. The sides of the window are filed nicely, and the top of the window (fipple side) was not bent or misshapen by the formation of the blade. Again, this impresses me.
The hole spacing is different from other whistles I have seen, but not a problem. The holes are almost round.
The plug is made of solid brass, and I urge Bill to reconsider this, because it makes the whistle a little too heavy. I think a nice plastic plug would be better. While a noble effort, the brass plug doesn’t quite fit perfectly and isn’t flush with its surrounding tube.
Now, the finish. I am a jeweler, and the polishing wheel is one of my best friends. This whistle fails miserably in the finishing department. Here is a picture of the plug.
The holes have clearly been sanded with a dremel tool bit, but not a fine polishing one, and not the surrounding areas of the sanding sites, so there are streaks along the tube, around the holes. I would suggest more dremel work on the parts of the whistle that have been attacked by a file (such as the plug), and a polishing wheel with two grades of polish (tripoli and rouge) for the final finish.
I think the playability of a whistle is its most important characteristic. I will say that this whistle is perfectly in tune, and the cross-fingered (OXXOOO) C natural works fine. But the whistle has a tragic flaw. The plug is too small, making the windway too big. Here’s a picture:
Fortunately, this problem is easy to remedy! In other whistles that have a big windway at the top, there is usually a tapered ramp that leaves the window side of the windway smaller (to match the window width and blade angle). So, it is my suggestion that Bill find a nice plastic material and taper the plug.
As is, the whistle is WAY TOO breathy. I think Steve Jones would even agree. It is extremely quiet in both octaves, and the air requirement is unreasonable. This is not a whistle that I would want to own or play.
So, to sum it up, I think Bill is onto something (I like the blade and window, the tuning is accurate, and the thickness of the tube works), and if he significantly improves the plug and finishing, he has a chance of producing a decent whistle.
~Jessie
