I’ve started playing with an Irish band on a regular basis. It’s usually a five-piece band: fiddle, bodhran, guitar, banjo/mandolin, and me (flute/whistle). Sometimes an extra banjo player shows up. Most of the time we’re playing with no amplification, and my Acorn D is starting to feel really inadequate, both in terms of volume and because of its lack of tuneability.
So I’m looking to buy a D whistle that has:
a) Plenty of volume, hopefully even in the first octave,
b) Nice sound - what’s the point of being loud if no one wants to listen to you?
c) A tuning slide,
d) The ability to not clog halfway through a tune.
Any recommendations?
P.S. For any of you in the DFW area, the band’s name is County Rexford, and if you’re ever in Denton on a Wednesday night, come see us at the Abbey Inn on the Square.
If I’m out and about with our Morris side and it’s cold, wet and very often windy
then I’ll play my Freeman Mellow Dog.
Won’t clog, has plenty of volume and great wind resistance, it can be blowing a
gale and it still plays.
Also when we’ve had a day going from pub to pub I don’t worry about it too much.
For a good cheap whistle try susato’s new oriole. Great strong bell note. People are sometimes finicky about susatos. I have a Kildare. But I have to say this new one has become my go to for everyday playing. I play mountain dulcimer and tuck a whistle under my knee. Don’t worry about dropping it or losing it. Got Burkes that I love, but I use them For special tunes. Just my two cents. Good luck in your search.
Ha… I do the whistle-under-knee thing too, while playing Boehm flute. And I’ve been eyeing a Burke. Got to play one once, it was nice… might decide to spring for it and call it a business investment. As for dropping or losing it, I’m carrying around a multi-thousand-dollar flute anyway.
Is the Freeman tunable?
My Acorn won’t move unless I heat up the headjoint. And I’ve got beeswax filling the space under the windway, which makes me reluctant to do that.
Sometimes you can come across Generations which have more volume than that sort of whistle usually does, ones that happen to have particularly good voicing.
But you might have to take the leap to a different style of whistle (non-Generation based).
Try a Burke “session bore”. I use one for just such situations, where a bit more volume is required. It has a full round strong low octave but a 2nd octave which isn’t harsh at all, but pure and clean. Plus like all Burkes the voicing is butter-smooth across the range. Burkes have a wide tuning range and a curved windway… I’ve never had any clogging issues, and I can clog an Overton in less than a minute of playing.
Susato D’s are the loudest high D’s I’ve ever owned, but in my experience are too loud (especially in the 2nd octave) for anything other than blasting on a busy streetcorner or playing along with 30 accordions or summat. Plus I’m not a fan of their tone or voicing.
PS I have no idea where “the DFW area” might be, in what country even. Reminds me how at work, where I meet people from all over the USA every day, people from every area of every state will tell me that they’re from “the Tri-Cities Area”. Evidently every county in our nation has a half-dozen places that locals call “the Tri-City Area”, the strange thing being that people imagine that the term has specific meaning outside of their locality.
DFW = Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A., as in the airport code (of which there is only one in the whole world) or more commonly the entire metroplex of both cities including the surrounding suburbs and bedroom communities.
You must not fly much – DFW is the airport code for Dallas Fort Worth.
South Carolina has no tri-cities area
To the OP, Mellow Dog is maybe medium volume, but, as the name implies, it’s kind of mellow. It might not cut through. Susato has a piercing tone that will cut through anything. If you can’t be heard playing one of those it’s not going to happen.
PS I have no idea where “the DFW area” might be, in what country even. Reminds me how at work, where I meet people from all over the USA every day, people from every area of every state will tell me that they’re from “the Tri-Cities Area”. Evidently every county in our nation has a half-dozen places that locals call “the Tri-City Area”, the strange thing being that people imagine that the term has specific meaning outside of their locality.
Honestly, it never crossed my mind that people might not know what “DFW” meant… but then I’m a native Texan myself. In the end I guess it doesn’t matter much, since someone who doesn’t know where DFW is, probably doesn’t care much about events in Denton (which is the northernmost end of the metroplex, in case anyone was wondering). But hey, the more you know…
Definitely some good stuff to look into. Thanks y’all!
This isn’t quite the simple answer you’re after, but have you considered taking up piccolo?
Way louder than any whistle, but the open-hole ones like Angus or Sweet (other makers are of course available) have very similar fingering and transferable skills. Learning the embouchure is, of course, the big difference, but well, well worth the work.
One of the best musical decisions I ever made in my life was taking up D piccolo over twenty years ago, it’s taken me to musical and geographical places I’d never have been if I’d stuck to whistle.
I actually just bought a piccolo, but it’s orchestra-style, not open-hole. Haven’t played much ITM on picc yet, but it’s doable, and you’re right - I’d have absolutely no problem being heard!
Will probably keep looking for a whistle though. I just don’t have a really good D whistle and that annoys me.
You don’t mention a price range but a Parks or Busman will check all the boxes you listed and both Carey and Paul are not only C&F regulars but great folks to work with.
Ah, Dallas-Fort-Worth… I have learned something today!
As far as airport codes go, sometimes they’re strange. Our local airport here in Orange County (California) is called “the John Wayne airport” by locals but has the code SNA.
About piccolos, I’ve heard people use them in Irish bands and I’m not a big fan. A Burke Session Bore (D) should give you enough volume, or if not, a Susato D.
On airports, I guess it depends which carriers you use – Southwest connects in DFW, MDW (Midway), and BWI (Baltimore-Washington) a lot for where I fly from/to.
Funny, as a result of this thread I went and played my Susato and it wasn’t nearly as piercing as I remember. I’m wondering if the difference is that the room is acoustically very dead, or if it’s hearing loss.
You’re a Highland piper, right, highland-piper? [/quote]
Huh?
But seriously my tinitus has taken a major turn for the worse in the last few months. I can think of three contributing factors including forgetting my earplugs for pipe band practice (it’s the snares that are really loud, not the pipes.. ), forgetting my earplugs when doing sound for my wife’s rock band, and dramatically more coffee.
I can still hear high frequencies, but there’s a high-pitched white noise on it all. That is, it’s not hearing loss per-se, but hearing high frequency stuff that isn’t there masking what it.
I learned to play piccolo in front of about 50 people, all of whom were good musicians, while also sight-reading fairly advanced concert band repertoire. Talk about thrown into the deep end. Took me a while to get over that grudge, to the extent that anyone ever gets over their grudge against piccolo.
I know many pipers who don’t wear earplugs for pipe corps practice, but stick the earplugs in when the drummers join in. It’s really incredible how loud those snares are.
(And some of the Grade One bands are going into the circle with ten, twelve snares.)
I don’t worry about it too much.
