Review house at http://www.tinwhistler.com/music/reviews.asp
Water Weasel Eb
(Review written May 2005)
Preface
Glenn Schultz has been making wooden and CPVC whistles for years. A short while ago, I reviewed a Thin Weasel in Snakewood, and now am following it up with a review of a Water Weasel in Eb. If you wonder how the CPVC stacks up to the wooden whistle, wonder no more!
At a Glance
Whistle Reviewed: Water Weasel in Eb
Models Available: Glenn offers several keys.
Construction: tunable CPVC
Price at time of review: $84.00 US dollars
Available From: Thin Weasel Woodwinds and
The Irish Flute Store
How Acquired: Product sample from Glenn Schultz
Bottom Line: Moderately loud, pure sounding. Very fast action, and cuts through bar noise easily.
Appearance/Construction
Pretty typical-looking PVC whistle. Ivory colored, with a red fipple.
Here’s the whistle. Clean construction, and nice looking overall.
Here’s a closeup of the mouthpiece. As with the wooden version, everything is extremely well constructed. The labium ramp is precise and well-formed. You can see here that the actual mouthpiece itself appears to be a seperate piece.
Here’s another angle on the mouthpiece, showing the fipple area. Please excuse the little bit of fuzz. That always seems to happen when I take pictures in the laundry room. Static electricity and all that. It’s a shame it’s the best-lit room in the house. The red fipple is pretty neat-looking to me. The windway is curved around the fipple, which tends to help with clogging in most whistles that have it.
A shot at the end of the whistle, showing the last three holes. Again, as with the wooden version, the holes are smooth, round, and well-centered. Again, everything is amazingly precise.
A view of the Thin Weasel Woodwinds logo. My wife thought it was really cute, and I agree.
Playing Characteristics
Very strong-toned, pure, loud whistle. Similar chiffiness to the Thin weasel. Easy to play. Not quite as woody sounding.
Sound clips of the whistle:
Banish Misfortune
The Banshee
Volume: Louder than average. I was able to be heard quite easily across the loud bar with this whistle. It’s pure, and just slices right through the crowd noise without being obnoxiously loud.
Responsiveness: This whistle is very responsive. Glenn’s whistles allow for playing just as fast as I can play them.
C# (which is the Eb equivalent of a C-Natural): OXXOOO produces a C# that’s perfect. You can push it a little, about + or - 10 cents, just like the wooden Thin Weasel.
Tuning: This whistle is in tune, when blown with the proper breath control. Like it’s wooden counterpart, The G (an Eb whistles equivalent to F#) requires a little bit of a push compared to the rest of the notes, but not that much of one. This appears to be typical of Glenn’s whistles, since I have two that are similar. Consistency is a good thing; when you get used to one of Glenn’s whistles, picking up others won’t be much of a learning curve.
Hole Size and placement: The holes are well rounded, and centered nicely along the body. After playing and studying his wooden version, I expected no differently.
Air volume requirements: Slightly below average. I didn’t seem to use as much air with this whistle, but it was pretty close to average. It’s only just a little better.
Air pressure pressure requirements: Like the wooden version, the 2nd octave has a bit of back pressure, but not very much. Probably less than the Syn whistle I reviewed recently. Just enough for you to know it’s there. If you try to lean into it a lot, it gets a lot louder, but you never really get a significant amount of push-back.
Clogging: This instrument never really clogged up on me. That curved mouthpiece area must help..it’d get wet around 25 minutes in, and I’d blow it out, but it never gave out. Again, very much like the Thin Weasel.
Wind Resistance: Moderate. I could play in light breezes, but stronger gusts of wind cut this whistle out. I’d be able to play it outdoors at the Texas Renaissance Festival (in Houston) without a problem, but probably not at Scarborough (in Dallas) without having to account for wind. It’s a bit windier up here than down there.
Summary
Great whistle. Really has all of the playing characteristics of his wooden one, though maybe a bit louder, and a bit better in the wind. So, when you buy one of Glenn’s whistles, the only real differences you need to note is if you like wood better than plastic, or if you like the sound of the wooden whistles better. They do have a slightly different sound, I imagine due to the nature of the material. And, of course, the price. You get a really high quality instrument for not a lot of dough. It’s easy to forget it’s only a bit of PVC pipe!