Twelve days ago I sent an email to Erle, maker of Syn whistles, ordering a mouth piece and 3 whistle bodies, in C, Bb and A. He charges $30 for the fipple, and $5 for each different body, so this was a total of $45, plus he charges $5 for shipping. I got the package yesterday and much to my surprise, he had thrown in a B and an E for no extra charge. And more to my surprise, he had thrown in a whistle case that holds 5 whistles! It’s made of soft cloth and has a compartment for each whistle. Beyond that, I’ve spent some time today with the C and the B (haven’t had time for the rest yet) and I’m totally impressed with the quality. The sound is on par with a quiet Burke, but the cost is about one fourth of a Burke. I’m not knocking Burke at all, I have 3 of them and love them, but I’m totally impressed with these Syns. The only caveat for some is that they are very quiet whistles, but that’s all right by me.
Good for you Blackhawk,sounds as if you got a good deal,I hope you enjoy them…as I’m sure you will 
I thought I’d read reviews before that said Syn whistles were loud. Has he changed the design recently?
Hi Jen!
He has indeed; I have both an early model and a late model Syn. I’ll start bringing them to session, you can compare and contrast.
His early model is about on a par with a Susato as for volume, and has a lot of resistance. His later work is quieter, has a smoother, purer sound, and somewhat less resistance, reducing the volume in the 2nd octave.
He makes good whistles, and they do represent a lot of whistle for the money.
–James
I tried one that Norcal brought to the Chiff Gathering. (Correct me if I’m wrong, Steve) It was an ironwood and it sounded excellent. Average sound volume, as best I could tell. Looked really nice, too.
Tony
Yes, that was a Syn Ironwood. Very nice, focussed sound and medium loudness. It felt great in the hands too, not too heavy and easy to find the finger holes, at least for me and my playing style/skill level.
I understand that Erle has changed the mouthpiece area on his wooden whistles. I have a lancewood on the way and am looking forward to seeing how it has developed.
Just for the record, the whistles that Blackhawk mentioned are metal tubes, not wooden.
Ah, thanks, Norcal, I had forgotten he also made wooden ones. What woods does he use? And do you happen to know how much he charges for those?
I have forwarded this thread to Erle and will defer to him for an answer.
The only woods that I know about are Ironwood and Lancewood.
Steve,
how was the Lancewood, then?
I was at a site w/pics, and it looked great. But how does it play and sound?
Tell ussssss…
Would if I could. I have never had a lancewood syn. Mine is on the way still. The ironwood I described above though.
I’m afraid the source of Ironwood turned out to be unreliable, but have plenty of Brown Lancewood of excellent quality in stock. I’m using it to make both D & C whistles. A couple of wooden whistles did a tour through the GX’s board, and there are some reviews in that place. I have made a small change to their construction since then, but Norcal, both your whistles are in the mail as we speak, and you should be in a good position very soon to give us a comparison between the Aluminium Syn and the Lancewood whistle. Sorry though, Mr Blackhawk got the last whistle bag and I preferred to post your order when the whistles were ready rather than hold them until the bags were done. I’l catch you up on that later.
I have Uilleann pipes in Red Lancewood. Nice graining, color and machines (turns) well.
Wow, that is a good deal. I have a syn, the first nice whistle I owned. Fantastic sound and response, but I don’t play it much. The layout of the holes puts the 4th and 5th a bit too close together, which is sort of annoying. My fingers rub together. Funny, when I play an F gen, all my fingers rub together sort of, but since they all do uniformly, it doesn’t seem to bother me.
I have been on a Bb kick lately though. I hadn’t thought of a Bb syn. I bet it’s good.
But I do have a couple of woa’s in line ahead of it. If I can ever get the dang child support checks straightened out…
I suspect a Syn (or several) probably is the best bang for a buck around at the moment. I only own one of the earliest prototype high Ds which Erle sent me at the very beginning of the development phase. I liked it a lot then and said at the time that it seemed rather like a Burke in sound, although not in feel. Certainly it was a lot closer to a Burke in quality than it was in price.
I think there have probably been several phases of improvement since I received mine but I’ve been reluctant to send it back for tweaking since I rather like it the way it is. This thread prompted me to get it out again yesterday and I like it even better now than I did back then.
I’ve been meaning for ages to contact Erle for a batch of unusual keys. I’m sure the Syns will do the jobs I want them to do just fine which is great since I couldn’t afford to buy Burkes, Sindts, Overtons or Abells in every key. But at these prices it will be hard to leave out keys.
Well, there is at least one other whistle I like to mention when “bang for the buck” comes up: Oak.
Now Oak and Syn are much different whistles, with a completely different sound.
An Oak is more like the best of the Generations, with a lot of chiff between notes, yet pure and sweet sound and well-balanced octaves. At about $12 UDS these also represent terrific bang for the buck in my opinion.
Some folks have written about the “poisen Oak” syndrome that makes your lips tingle; I’ve had 3 D Oaks and 1 C and none of them did this, but possibly I’m not not sensitive to it and others are. The quality from whistle to whistle has been consistent among the Oaks I own.
To me Oaks have response and sound more similar to high-end whistles than any of the other inexpensive whistles except maybe Clare or a good Generation when you can find one..
–James
Two more things I wanted to point out about Erle and his whistles. First was how fast they got here all the way from Australia. I ordered them one week and they were here the following week.
The other thing is that he only charged $5 for shipping from Australia. After having fun with the whistles for a while, I looked at the mailing tube again and saw the postage said $10. That didn’t include the cost of the tube itself, large enough for 5 tubes and the whistle pouch, a much larger tube than I usually use for shipping whistles. He obviously doesn’t charge full price for his own shipping cost. I’m sure there’s an exchange rate that is part of the explanation, but I have trouble believing he can ship it all for just $5 American.
I bought one of the first Syns last year and when this package arrived, I pulled the fipple off that older D and put it on the new B. Between that B and the new C tube where I put the new fipple, I’m having so much fun that I can’t bear to pull the fipples off to try out the Bb, E and A tubes.
Was that $10 US or AUS? There is a pretty big exchange difference between the two currencies right now.
Aah, sorry I misread the date of your post… arrgh 
Eivind
Aus, naturally. But even so, that’s postage plus the mailing tube, plus his time to wrap it up and mail it. I can’t imagine he breaks even on all that.
I’m only a couple weeks into practicing with my first whistle, a Dixon high D, but I’m enjoying getting into some tunes, and especially trying to learn ornaments, and such.
Today I noticed this new topic and it caught my eye, as I have been thinking about getting another whistle (Whoa already?). As a beginner, do you think the Syn’s would be okay for me to try? I have read so much about “beginner” whistles, I’m not sure I know how you decide when you are ready to move “up” to a different whistle (I’m sure with practice and time and more reading on C&F, this will be more evident).
matt 