For some reason this photo, which I posted earlier, doesn’t seem to be showing up now.
My home-made “A” is on the left.
You can see it’s slightly larger tubing, soldered onto a short section of Generation Bb tubing so as to fit into the head.
That “A” got a load of playing over my St Patricks Day gigs- for me it’s the perfect whistle: spot on intonation, incredibly sweet nimble 2nd octave, and having enough presence in the low octave.
@Nathaniel… thanks for the videos. When I saw the first one, though we were talking about A whistles, I assumed the video was comparing low D’s. Should have looked closer. To my ears, in both videos the Goldies and MK’s sound best.
Two questions: I hadn’t realized the tuning slide on some MK’s was plastic… how does it hold up?
Could you compare the nature of the Goldie medium blowers to the hard blower? None around here that I know of to try, and I’m eventually going to have to choose.
Thanks,
Adrian
The plastic slide has been fine for me, but I seldom play that whistle, so I’m not a good stress test.
I chose a hard blowing Goldie A because that’s what Brian Finnegan was playing. The rest of my Goldies are medium. For ME, the hard blower is too hard. I feel tense while playing it, and I feel like the tone is restricted and thin in a few spots. If I had to do it again, I’d go for a soft blower. I’ve heard they aren’t that much different, but I’d rather have to push a little less, and get a fuller tone. Part of me wonders if Brian just managed to pick a Wonder Whistle that happened to be hard blowing but avoiding the tonal pitfalls. Although, lots of people tell me they prefer my Goldie tone, so maybe it sounds fantastic from a distance, but the experience is different when playing. It’s a great whistle, it just doesn’t resonate with me as much as I’d like.
Thanks Nathaniel. That’s the most useful comparison I have come across on the Goldie characteristics. Ruling out hard blowers for me.
Adrian
My Susato Kildare A arrived on Saturday. I like the way it plays very much, but I have to use the O ring fix on the head to lessen the volume. Oddly, I like it very much with the O ring, but don’t care for it without the O ring. Maybe it’s because I play indoors in smallish rooms or medium size halls. I have a feeling I’ll remove the O ring if I have to belt out a tune outdoors.
I’ve had an A whistle (blackwood) by Chris Abell for years. Have no further need for anything else. (Just checked the current prices on his web site. Ouch! Glad I bought it way back when.) Other than the cost, I can’t think of a single negative thing to say about it. Same with the D.