Anyone care to comment on the Syn sets? Pros, cons, playing characteristics, volume, comparisons to other brands, all that jazz?
I’ve got a set of Syns - C, D, Eb. I find that they are good workhorses, and all-purpose whistles. They’re not my favourites - but then I’m not a big fan of aluminium whistles, which these are - but they work and they do what I expect them to do. I wouldn’t part with them, even though they’re not my most played whistles.
Does that help at all? At least it gets the ball rolling, so to speak.
I have 2 Syn sets, a D/C set first, then the all singing, all dancing A to E set (1 head and 7 bodies).
Ben has it right, they are workhorses, they play well, are extremely robust, (I stood on one of the tubes, accidentally, and it was undamaged and I am no lightweight).
The A to E set was the last metal high whistle(s) I bought, every other high whistle since then has been wooden as I have not found a metal whistle whose sound I preferred to the Syns.
David
That does help indeed. Two questions. How is the head constructed? Is it all delrin or does the aluminium tube integral to the mouth peice? And I’m curious about the one head, seven bodies configuration, since its quite a stretch for one bore diameter. The last set I had with that wide of range from a single maker were Sindts, and those used three different diameters for the same range of keys. How do the whistles playing characteristics change with different body lengths?
The head on my Syns is Delrin, but the aluminium tube continues through it, so there’s a sort of Delrin sandwich formed with the block. (If no-one does it before, I’ll try and post a picture this evening.)
As for the tone, I can’t speak for the seve-whistle set, but my three=whistle set (C, D, Eb) works very well indeed. I don’t quite know how it’s done, but the tone on each is excellent, and doesn’t seem to suffer from having just the one bore, and one head between them.
They’re also nice a shiny, by the way. 
It is a Delrin/Ally/Delrin sandwich. I hope someone can post a pic.
The optimal range for this size Ally tube seems to be between D and B. Shorter bodies outside this range can be pushed and are loud and bright, the longer ones are quieter and need less pushing and more breath control.
Compliments of the Big Whistle site.
I’d agree with te earlier comments - good whistles, strong stable tone, workhorse durability. The D takes more push than many whistles but less than a few others. YMMV. It’s all relative to one’s experience.
Feadoggie
The optimal range for this size Ally tube seems to be between D and B. Shorter bodies outside this range can be pushed and are loud and bright, the longer ones are quieter and need less pushing and more breath control.
I would agree with this, when you get to the A body, if you smile at it, it goes into the second octave. The B body sounds heavenly in my set.
David
The Sevin Deidly Synnis? But are there not eight pitches from A to E?
You are right Peter, the set has A, Bb, B, C, Db, D, Eb and E bodies (that makes 8 
a degree in Maths and can’t count).
David
And if they each play in a secondary key that’s sixteen. 
And don’t forget the minors. The head spins… 
I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard a sound sample. Anyone know of any recordings with these whistles?
try; https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=sucNu6Vd6aY
there are other youtube clips as well.
Wow, a wild set Earl, thanks for posting it! I don’t even usually like high whistles, but after listening to it, I’ve got to acknowledge the great playing and presence of your whistle in this performance! I guess Paddy just gave in to the excellent play at hand, and took a back seat to the top dog at the moment. Nice collaboration, and thanks for sharing it!
Maybe I should give your whistles another look! Got any lower keys?! I know you do, just haven’t heard or played any.
And now for something completely different; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii8G8J-gVic
Thanks for the clips Earl. I had seen the first one, though I didn’t know it was one of your whistles. Smashing set… I’m a great admirer of Alan’s playing, so its quite a recommendation.
David, David, David. Mathematics isn’t counting. Arithmetic is counting. Math is equations and theorems and stuff. But then, I know these things because I have two math degrees. And yes, I don’t count well at all.
Thanks for that Erle.
I remember an important day - trying out your whistles the first time - and you told me “you gotta push it” and I did .. and then I understood something.
Commitment.
Never forgot that.
Thanks again.
Please guys, be nice to me. None of this helps in the least, since I still find numbers mindnumbingly inscrutable. (A state of affairs not shared by words, obviously… ) Hell, I was so dyslexic adding and subtracting hid in the deep mists of obscurity and caused loads of headaches until well after junior high. Back to the Syns, I’m curious about air requirements and backpressure. Can anyone give comparisons to some other brands?
When compared to a generation whistle, I find the SYN differs as follows (D whistle):
Volume: louder
Backpressure: higher
Air req: about the same .. I can easily get through into the B part of a jig without running out of air .. however it is different with the backpressure being high .. if the B part goes into high A, B or C# I need the additional diaphragm energy to get it there. But this becomes automatic after only a short time getting used to it.
I assume that the large bore makes these differences .. but even though it asks a little more of the player - the rewards are there in the wider timbrel palette. That extra bit allows for more expression with shading and other performance techniques.
The SYN cannot be played shyly .. (not be me anyway) .. which is where the player-whistle unit comes in. Every player is as different as every whistle .. the subjective pairing cannot be defined before the pairing occurs in the real-world.
Ideally you would try before you buy .. in the absence of that, the replies given above are about as good as it gets in virtual reality.
Hope it works-out!