… in the local ‘world music’ shop, its been there since 2003, and looks lonley.
it costs about £70.
im tempted to give it a new home as its a shame to see an instrument stood silent and idle, but it would be my frist ‘really long whistle thing’* and it looks a little bit used, and its expensive concidering i play feadog and havent spent more then £50 on whistles thus far… it may just be the finish which is silvery, not honestly sure what its made of but im sure somone can have a rough guess. good whistle for a first timer? Buy it? Dont bother?
Getting a Shaw low D as a first low whistle has its good and bad points. Bad: takes a lot of wind and technique, even for an experienced player. Good: If you can overcome those difficulties without giving up in frustration, you’ll be able to play practically anything else on the market. Had I it to do over, I wouldn’t have had the Shaw as my first low D.
If you get a shaw, you’d be wise to make it your main axe for a few months while your breath control and fingers adjust. If you play a treble whistle most of the time and only switch over for a couple of tunes at the end of a session or practice, it’ll always feel alien and uncomfortable in comparison. Once you have adjusted, you’ll be fully bilingual and able to swap at will.
turns out its been in the shop since at least 2003 with no real maintmence, it plays ok, but im wondering if theres anything i should do to it to make it happier?
G and A in the second octave require a phenominal ammount of wind to voice right but i assume thats normal?
C / C# seem to have very little difference between them using either fingering, its in tune tho. just dosent ‘flatten’ well
there are small gaps between the sides of the ‘fipple stop’ and the body, but the body seems securley fastned, so its probably an asthetic non issue.
its soldered on the back so i hope i dont die of led posioning
all this said.. and a lot of the above is more down to my ignorance / being rubbish at low whistle i absolutly love it, its probably the best thing i have bought in ages, its super to give a neglected instrument a ‘good’ home and i managed to get a slice off the asking price due to it being in neglect. Now ill go and practice… any low whistle tips, i think i have pipers grip sorted.
There’s not much playing-in required of a whistle, unless the fipple block has dried out and shrunk tot he point of altering the fipple airway, but I believe that Shaw low whistles have a lined airway, anyway.
Apart from that, just play away, a lot. The more you play it, the less work and the less air it’ll require.
I have long had a Shaw mezzo G - a bit breathy but nice… I made it less breathy and less air hungry by slightly depressing the top of the windway - a well known Clarkes tweak, I believe… and also checking the alignment of the labium blade with the air-way floor (by looking through the airway… You can adjust both airway roof and labium edge quite easily, though be very careful to do it evenly and not excessively. Done with caution, you can always reverse things/keep tweaking… I’ve had goes on Shaw low Ds a couple of times and also thought them quite nice, but wasn’t tempted to buy as I’d want a tunable whistle for that money… That said, I’ve found the G very stable - not prone to going sharp in warm, fuggy sessions like most other flutes and whistles…
Try oxx xox for C natural, BTW - works perfectly on my G (C nat fingering = F nat, of course).
