In a shop in Ennis, I saw a low D, tuneable whistle that was black anodized aluminum with a somewhat sharp flat beak and a thin straight windway. The tuning slide was aluminum with no raised portions or any corking - the fit was nicely done to a perfect tolerance. Through the windway from above showed non anodized aluminum making a somewhat striking appearance. There were no identifying marks of any kind on the whistle in or out. It was neither a Chieftain nor an Overton and not an O’Briain. The girl who was there didn’t know and I didn’t get back from touring the burren and the cliffs of moher in time to speak with the knowledgeable whistle person. I didn’t get a chance to play it either and it was listed at 200 euro I believe. Any guesses? It looked vaguely familiar as though I’d seen it somewhere on line from some relatively unknown new maker.
this is my very first comment here + I’ve waited up to the moment someone mentioned these “mk whistles”.
My whistle experiences are of a few weeks, I started with a Susato low D for the first steps on low whistling, and my first high D whistle is a Silkstone D-plus (thanks to the very helpful reviews of “Wanderer”).
For the future I wish to play a high-end low whistle and discovered amongst others the “mk whistles”, which seem indeed to be relatively new on the market as to my restricted knowledge… and if they sound as they look - what I hope - it would be just perfect.
So if anyone at anytime of this message board got hold of this whistle and could post a review on it, I would be VERY grateful.
Thanks in advance + nice greetings from Stuttgart/Germany - Eleonore
Welcome, Eleonore! Phil Hardy has two videos on his whistle profile page on the MK whistles, which I will give you his post about it and link below. I know they have been discussed elsewhere on Chiff, but the search function doesn’t recognize MK as a word, so they are hard to find! PS I just found another post that has some comments about the MK’s in ithere using the Google search this time. The videos should give you a good idea too.
Misha just sent me one of his whistles - excellent on first playing. Extraordinarily even through both octaves and the high A and B require only the slightest bit extra push to sound. There is definitely something to a top player making instruments I reckon. Will try and post a better review after I get back from the gig I bought it for this weekend.
Thanks very much to you both! This is already sufficient information for me. I hadn’t realized it on the kerry website despite my viewing many of the clips already…
Now I only have to order - if only I had the money…(sigh!)