Silkstone Alloy D Mini-Review

Whistle
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I was recently given a Silkstone Alloy Soprano D as a gift, by a very close friend (Thanks again :slight_smile: ). This is my first Silkstone so I thought I’d post a few thoughts about it, for those who haven’t tried one yet.

Visually the whistle is very handsome, a somewhat masculine looking whistle with it’s brushed aluminum body, black head joint cap and large exterior tuning slide - very attractive.

Engineering wise the whistle seems to be very well engineered and manufactured. The tuning slide utilizes two o-rings on the body, rather than the headjoint, and this seems to me a better design than Burke is currently using - two o-rings on the Silkstone as opposed to Burke’s one, and the rings are mounted where you can easily access them, incase one should dislodge or break and need to be replaced. The slide works very smoothly.

The windway is virtually clog free do to the fact that the plug and top section are all a polymer/plastic of some sort. The mouthpiece is shaped almost perfectly to my liking, not too short, not too long.

The thing that impresses me most about the whistle is the sound: This alloy D has a very nice tone - very round and full sounding for a soprano whistle. It’s also got good volume, without being earsplitting on the highest notes. The balance between octaves seems quite good to me and the bell note is very solid, a quality I really like in a whistle.

Overall playability is, I think, excellent, and so far I’ve found the whistle to be very well behaved.

Now that I’ve had a chance to play one, I’d put the Silkstone Alloy Soprano D right near the top of the list of “Bang for the buck expensive” whistles. Perhaps the tone isn’t as sweet as a good Abell, or Rose, but the Silkstone does sound really good, it has good volume (enough for sessions) and it appears to be very durable - a fantastic travel/adventure whistle. I’d highly recommend this whistle to anyone looking for a top quality Soprano D at a reasonable price. (Unfortunately I can’t say the same thing about the Silkstone Low D, I wasn’t impressed with the one I tried, but that’s another topic I suppose…)

Cheers,

Loren

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P.S. I forgot to mention that the Silkstone’s tuning is spot-on, even the oxxooo cross fingered C nat is deadly accurate.

Really a great whistle.

Thanks again to my friend for the gift, I love this whistle!

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Wow…quite a review. I often recommend the Silkstone Alloy soprano d to people who want a high-end reliable whistle. Your review does Paul Hayward a great service! Isn’t it cool to get another whistle you really like after thinking maybe you’d already played all the special ones?

:slight_smile: Jessie

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Just wanted to say that I love my Silkstone Alloy D as well… I find the tone to be very what I would call “concentrated” or “focused”. It’s quite powerful. In terms of volume… it’s a loud whistle - good for sessions - that is if you want to be heard! :slight_smile: Also, I found it’s volume loud enough that I needed to wear earplugs when practicing with it for extended periods of time… Not a bad thing… I now have other whistles that I practice with that aren’t quite as loud… One note… don’t leave it around pets! It’s felt case looks to them like a toy! My dog, Darcy (name means “decendant from the dark one” fitting, I think") mistook it for a chew toy! Ahhh!!! Paul however, graciously is working on repairing it now… His cat did the same thing to one of his! Well… Once again I second the praise of Paul’s work. Mine, before Darcy got a hold of it… was a beauty to behold! Paul, thanks again for agreeing to fix my whistle! Peace, Blayne

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Welcome to the “Silkstone Alloy Soprano” fan club, Loren! What a spot-on review! This cool looking beauty really is a joy to play. In my opinion it almost sounds too good for a whistle. I find that my Silkstone has all the virtues that I miss on my favorite Generation (and vice versa). Seems I’m in Soprano D nirvana!
Christian

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Loren as usual has given an excellent description, just one more thing about the silkstone alloy that was not mentioned: the finger holes are beveled cut so it makes it easier to seal.
A wonderful whistle indeed!
S.

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Just when I had my wish list down to three (Burke Al pro and Sindt D’s, Water Weasel low-F), Loren had to go and post a review that just made my wish list grow.

In re the tuning slide, I have no idea why Mike Burke does his “backwards,” although he does have two O-rings on his low whistles. Susato has the same system as Silkstone; I did have one pop out once while I was sliding it, and it got all mangled. I emailed Kelichek asking for the size or Parker O-ring # (the whistle was a few years old), and they sent me a new one gratis within two days. That’s service.

Charlie