Does anyone know of a decently priced B whistle and where I could order it from? I want to learn tunes and play along with “Kitty Lie Over” by Mick O’Brien and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. Thanks alot.
Slán,
Harrison
I highly recommend Michael Burke’s session pro brass whistle in B. I have one, its fantastic. Probably any of his other B whistle are also great.
As far as I remember Mick and Caoimhín played Susato whistles.
I think Susato make them in B…
Yes, Susato makes a nice B whistle. Elderly Instruments has it for $30.
I have a Water Weasel B which is very nice and a Burke Bb which is one of my favorite whistles. If you want to play along with Kitty Lie Over, you’ll want a Bb, though, as I recall. For that matter, I have liked both the Generation Bbs I’ve had, nickel and brass.
Carol
They used Burkes
I also think the Water Weasel B is really good. Then again, it’s the only B natural whistle I’ve ever played, I think…B isn’t too useful a key generally.
B is good if you play with geetar players, to play songs in the key of E. Or if you play Irish music with someone who has flat pipes in B. Mack Hoover makes a nice B, also.
I think you can now get Sindt and Abell in B. And Overton of course. I don’t have a B whistle. I’ve been meaning to fill in the odd keys with at least one nice whistle.
They do.
And Mick’ll sell you one if you live in Europe.
Otherwise, ask Mr Burke himself.
You’ll need to have something to play in Bb too as there’s a good number of tunes from that recording in Bb rather than B.
B
One of the best bangs for the buck is probably an aluminium Syn B. I have a full set of Syns and I love them. You could get the whole set (E, Eb, D, C#, C, B, Bb and A bodies -one headjoint-) for less than you would pay for most of the other high enders. Plus, Erle is a great fellow to deal with, very friendly, fast delivery and everything. Find contact info in the C&F high-end whistle guide.
Cheers
I know all that and I’ve been meaning to act on it. It’s one of those odd things. Erle lives in the same range of mountains about an hour’s drive away. I’ve just never got around to ordering what I want from him.
Sinéad O’Connor sings a lot in B, too, but I usually just play along in E and it works okay.
You’d better go visit him and see if he has any wooden whistles to try out, too. That’s something I’d like to see more feedback about.
I have a high D aluminum Syn, and it’s one of my favorites. If some Doomsday scenario required me to be left with only one whistle, I might not pick the Syn on purpose, but I wouldn’t feel real bad if chance picked it for me. It’s similar to the Burke narrow-bore aluminum, but not quite as “bright”, which I presume means that it has fewer high overtones. As a result, I’d consider it slightly less “expressive”, based on my own playing style. Still, it sounds pretty good.
When I moved, I selected the Syn and the Busman Delrin whistles to carry along on the plane, in part because I like the sound and playability of each, and in part because they are two of my most robust whistles. I’m not worried about either bending, breaking, or denting from something as simple as sitting on them, stepping on them, or dropping them on a hard surface. Their only real weak points are the brass tuning slides, and, being short, the slides aren’t much of a problem.
It’s interesting that the Busman is my most expensive whistle, while the Syn is one of my least expensive ones (though I got mine as part of a trade, rather than by actually paying the US$41.00 that [u]Gaelic Crossings[/u] charges for them).
Thankfully, I have an E whistle now. Before, I would pull out the mouthpiece on my tunable Dixon G and use creative breath control.
Despite this pronouncement I am glad there are a variety of makers who make them and a variety of uses for them identified by some other posters.
And then, there are millions of simple system whistlers in non ITM traditions who may have millions of uses for them.