Never having owned a Susato small bore high D (I had a VSB once, but didn’t love it), I received one for my birthday and must say I rather love it. I had a chance to play one at a session about a month ago, and tired of being drowned out (when not playing flute) by 15 other musicians (including 2 box players) I wanted something with more volume than my dixon trad - yet being primarily a flute player, I didn’t want to spend too much money.
So my wife surprised me with an Ivory kildare model with a nice celtic knot on it.
First off, I must say James’ tips on playing the susato were very helpful…especially hold the whistle in more of a downward position.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=43270&highlight=susato+tweak
However, I was having a bit of a problem with sudden octave jumps (it wasn’t responding as well as I’d like in the C part of Dusty Windowsills or the B part of Woman of the House) since I don’t tongue as much as many whistle players. So I then found MTguru’s tip on the O ring tweak:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=50113&highlight=susato+tweak
Not having a spare O ring, but being an avid aquarium keeper, I had a mess of small rubber bands - the type they tie up bags of fish with. 2 small rubber bands later and I have the perfect louder whistle I wanted.
My thanks to James and MTGuru for helping me tame the beast a bit!
Eric
I also started with rubber bands before hitting on the O-ring as a neater solution.