Does any one make a C or Bb whistle whistle with a thumb hole? I thought Chris Abell might, but I see no reference to this on his website.
Thanks,
Jeff Myers
Mike Burke will do it, Chris Abell will do it. Others probably will, too. You just need to ask.
See dhigbee’s post in the Whistle Forum. She’s selling a Burke D with a thumb hole for $85 (For Sale: Burke Al D Pro). Sounds like a good deal…
Only maker I’ve heard refuse to drill a thumb hole is John Sindt. But anyway you can do it yourself fairly easily.
Ask cskinner, she has committed such goffence against the odds.
It’s true, it’s true. And for my punishment I am stuck for all eternity with a C natural (or an Ab on my Bb whistle, etc.) that can be perfectly in tune, or slid into for floating intonation; that can be ornamented; that makes tricky passages smoother; and that also can be played just as it is on a whistle without a thumbhole, just by keeping the hole covered. And even worse than that, I am stuck in the musical company of James Conway and Noel Rice, fellow sinners. The gods have been merciless.
Carol
Noel Rice is a neat guy. He has strong opinions and they are well-founded. I talked to him at length several years ago at the Festival at Grant Park about his Boehm leaning, and he made a good case for both the Boehm flute and the C-natural hole. In fact, it was the first I’d seen C-natural holes (I thought they were a bit weird), but I was impressed aht he had gotten Chris Abell and Mike Burke to make a bunch of instruments that way for his students. I saw a 13-year-old girl who had been playing whistle for 5 years…she played on an Abell with a C hole and she just blew me away. Noel’s fluting, to be sure, is known to be quite good. I remember wishing I’d had the opportunity to learn Irish trad from an early age and from such a dedicated community.
Chris Abell is making me a D whistle in pink ivorywood with a LH thumbhole for Bb, a RH thumbhole for Fn, and a RH pinky (4th) hole for a low Cn.
FWIW.
Tommy Kochel
Just remember: “We must fight and win wars in order to prevent wars from happening in the first place.” - G.W.B.
Chris Abell is making me a D whistle in pink ivorywood with a LH thumbhole for Bb, a RH thumbhole for Fn, and a RH pinky (4th) hole for a low Cn.
I had a dream once I picked up a whistle and it had double rows of holes all the way down the tube. I couldn’t figure out where to put my fingers. Have fun, Tommy.
Tony
I will. It will definitely be my experimental whistle, but probably also the one I will travel with: with thumb holes covered and the low Cn ignored, it’s just a D whistle.
He makes 10-holed whistles on request as well, but, frankly, I wouldn’t know what to do with my LH pinky; that would be confusing for me, but the rest is relatively easy to handle.
I don’t know James Conway, but i’d be cautious of Noel Rice. What he didn’t tell you, Jessie, is that he tried to compete in the All-Ireland using a thumb-holed whistle and got das boot. As many of you know, thumb-holed whistles are seriously looked down on in the Tradition (the same for the silver Boehm flute). Is there any rational basis for such a bias? Probaby not. I’ve never tried a whistle with a thumb hole, so I don’t know what to make of them. But that Rice tried to thumb the tradition at the All-Ireland, i think that says alot. And regarding Noel Rice’s playing. I’d give a listen for yourself before you take somebody else’s word for how good he is. (To be fair, i have heard a couple, er, one of his students, and she was pretty good.)
In any case, i’ll be interested in hearing more about what folks have to say about thumb-holed whistles. (Are there any thumb-holed clips around?) I’d really like to try one out sometime too, although I think you can get by pretty well without it, half-holing the C natural where tuning is crucial. So my intuitions are bit conservative on this one. (Don’t think i’ll be drilling any holes in my copelands any time soon…)
Don’t mistake Comhaltas for ‘the tradition’. They may think they are but they are not.
good point.
Tried a whistle with thumb hole and felt it gave more easily in-tune C and good tone. But interestingly,I soon got bored of the sound. Thus I chose 6 holes with offset pattern.
This shows(at least for me) that a drawback is not even a drawback.No, sometimes not at all. Then what? No idea.
6 holes mean something fatally important, thats my insight.
Thanks for all of the wonderful responses. I just ordered a Burke whistle with a thumb hole.
Jeff Myers
Congrats, you’re going to be very happy! 
Dana