I would like to ask for everyone’s opinion about which whistle I should get to satisfy the below listed requirements:
High D
Metal
Sweet tone with a “bit” of chiff
Low breath requirement
Low to moderate back pressure
Not shill
Not very loud (90% of playing is solo and indoors)
Easy transition between octaves
Cost is not an issue, though I expect to see a range of suggestions (i.e., Clarke to Copeland). For those respondents with a severe case of WHOA, please limit your suggestions to 1 or 2 choices.
As always, I truly appreciate everyone’s assistance.
Have you tried an Oak? Oak’s aren’t much for back pressure, but aside from that they fit your description. For a bit more $$ one of the old style Burke wide-bore brass whistles would also be good (very sweet).
I would second the opinion to try an Oak. To me, they fit your description pretty much exactly. One thing to be aware of: my Oak’s tone gets very sweet and pure once it’s warm, which takes about 10 minutes of play. Until then, the sound isn’t quite so pure.
You might also try an Acorn–they aren’t quite as sweet as an Oak but they are also a little less prone to squeak if played cold.
Also for a little more money I would say a Serpent D fits your description nicely.
I’m not going to get into the chiff, sweet, etc. tone stuff because it’s too subjective and you need to hear the whistles for yourself. That said, and inferring from your words that you’re looking to go up a notch in quality of craftsmanship (if not necessarily sound) and want one that is not too loud:
Burke Al-pro, Sindt, and Parkhurst would all do well.
Never played a Hoover, but lots of good feedback on those; I’m expecting a Hoover whitecap shortly, but I think that’s PVC. If you consider plastic, I’ll let you know how it is; they are very reasonably priced. The Parkhurst is heavy copper and very durable (and nice looking), not loud and also reasonably priced. The Al-pro (aluminum) is ethereally light and has a very nice tone (sweet, no chiff?); an easy player.
If you consider plastic, also be aware that Abell makes a wonderful Delrin whistle - beautiful and second only to my Copeland nickel; however, it is very much more expensive than the others, as is the Copeland.
Philo
Be aware that the loudness thing cancels out what IMHO is the very best soprano D on the planet, Copeland. Also cancels out the wonderful Overton.
I recently got a “practice D” from Stacey at Alba. It pretty much fits your description. In addition, it was designed to be quieter (hence the “practice”). You can order from Stacey direct (it is not available yet on her website). The whistle is around $50.00, depending on the exchange.
You can see a review and pictures of the whistle at:
Of the dozen or so high Ds I own or have owned, most of them high end, the Sindt easily comes closest to fulfilling your criteria exactly.
Burke and Sweetone come close but lack chiff, however you want to define it. Overton and Copeland are great whistles but not at all what you are looking for. Abell and Busman both fit the bill in most respects but are made of wood not metal.
For a medium priced whistle that’s great value and fairly close, you could try a Syn. The market is very crowded with high-end high Ds. Probably several whistles come very close to your requirements and only you would be able to choose between them. Of those I have no first hand experience of, Parkhurst, Reyburn, Elfsong and Hoover would all seem to be worth investigating.
A Syn is very loud and a Sindt is very pure. My goodness…can someone tell me the current accepted definition of “chiff” - I take it to mean “breathiness” and soom of you seem to take it to mean the opposite.
I’ve always taken “chiff” to refer to a slight roughness at the start of the note, during the attack, if you will.
I always took breathiness to be a different thing, a general breathiness throughout the notes as characterised by Shaw whistles (and my Dixons and Clarkes).
I was looking at those – the practice whistle isn’t shown on thier site [edit – of course not, you just said that], that I can find. Is there a review of thier normal tunable D whistle anywhere?
I’d love to get one, but #65 is a bit too much in canadian $ (would be over $130 here). maybe later
I recently got a Copperhead on trade, made by a new whistlemaker, Gary Humphrey (raindog). It totally fits the bill, is cheaper than most of the “high end” stuff, and has jumped to the top of my favorite whistle list along side the Abell (which is totally different). I’ll give a more detailed review later. Hype and quality don’t necessarily go together. In this case there is very high quality w/ no hype so far.
Tony
My Syn is an early prototype and isn’t very loud. It’s probably louder than was desired though. My Sindt D is pure and my A/Bb is cloudy but not in a way I would call chiffy. Unless I’m mistaken, the latest view here seems to be that Sindts vary within a key as well as from key to key; hence the fairly dramatic difference of opinion about their overtonal qualities. I’ve only played the ones I own but it seems plausible given the fact that you don’t get comparable disagreement over, say, Overtons.
As for what chiff really means, there are two views. One is that it means breathiness (or perhaps raspiness) as a constant tonal feature. The other view is that it means breathiness (or raspiness) at the point of attack. My Sindt D has a bit of attack chiff but none of the first kind. Those who think that real chiff is just attack chiff cite correctly the way pipe makers use the term. Adherents of this view falsely believe whistlers to be the only people to use it for harsh overtones that remain throughout the note. This isn’t so. Designers of synthesiser patches use the term chiff to mean breathy overtones throughout and not just at the point of attack. Since both features exist, it would make sense to have a term for each. Chiff can be either for all I care, just so long as we find a good term for the other feature.
Yeah, agreement about the definition would be good. I admit that my usage of the word goes back to our C&F original decision that it meant “breathiness” and now that there are mostly (relatively) new people using the word, it doesn’t mean the same thing anymore. I try to avoid the word, myself.
The first usage of “chiff” which I recall was with reference to the initial attack when a note is played on some pipe organs. The term was used in this way by the organist E. Power Biggs on an LP recording which demonstrated various historic organs. I acquired the LP in the 1950s.
