Sam,
Overton’s Colin Goldie makes some whistles below Low D; here are some pictures (scroll approx. to the middle of the page) and a list of of whistle keys below Tenor D.
Burke makes a low-C. It’s quite a behemoth – the reach is a little greater than the D, but it’s quite an air hog. Jubilee makes down to low-low A. Overtons are available below low-D; I’m sure those owning them will chime in.
Charlie
I once had a Burke composite low C. Actually, that one took only moderate air. It did have a great, growly low C note. Nice, wooden tone. It is a good instrument.
Sam, I’ve got an Overton (Baritone) low A in perfect condition that I’d be willing to sell you. If you are interested contact me at reyburnwhistles@hotmail.com
Ronaldo
Generally you can build whistle down to Low-A below Low-C or 220Hz. Once you go below that, it is difficult for anyone to play except someone with abnormally large hands. Whistles can be built a frequencies even lower, I’ve built a basswhistle that plays Low-low-C (An octave below low-c), it is 6-hole whistle with keys on each hole, it is not chromatic.
As you get lower in frequency, the toneholes get bigger in diameter, the bore gets wider (it is possible to do a narrow bore - kind of like a bass Boehm Flute does but requires precise breath control and very tedious design requirements.
They don’t take as much air as you would suspect though.
I believe that the version of “Lament for Owen Rowe” that Joe McKenna plays on his fine CD “The Irish Low Whistle” is played on a Low B Flat whistle. The liner notes to this REAL FINE CD state that “On this CD Joe has used an Overton whistle, a Michael Copeland, a John Sindt, a Pat O’Riordan and a Nepalese B flat Bamboo.” It was my good fortune to hear Mr. McKenna (not to mention Antoinette McKenna and Mary Bergin) play at the Blarney Star here in NYC last June. It don’t get no better.
Tom D.
I own a Chieftain Bass A whistle. I don’t know if Phil Hardy has any more of them, but you could contacct him and ask.
I love it for the simple reason that I know a guy who plays a low D with fingertips. I handed him my psycho-freudian whistle and he couldn’t make the stretch at all. Heh, heh.
It sounds really nice, except that the holes are huge and far apart, so I often let squeaks happen when I don’t get a hole covered all the way. Oh, well. Practice would make perfect if I actually did any…
-Patrick
Just to remind youse guys, Tony Dixon is now making a low C that’s pretty nice and not very expensive. It can be ordered direct, from him or, maybe, the Whistleshop can get it.
Here’s what Colin Goldie makes in Overton whistles below Low D:
Tenor D flat
Baritone C (small bore)
Baritone C (big bore)
Baritone B
Bass B flat
Bass A
Bass G
I once wrote in the newsletter about attempting to play a Bass A I borrowed from Jim Dunn. I had to tape the holes down to get the bell note. The bell note triggered plate tetonic activity in the Southern USA.
Bernard Overton also makes low low whistles (Spillane uses one on “Corcomroe”, a beautiful track on “Pipedreams”). Bernard’s are now tunable and he recommends you twist the headpiece 180 degrees so that the fipple faces your throat - this doesn’t affect volume, but makes reaching the holes a lot easier.
I play a Colin Goldie Overton Low-low A. It has a wonderful, rich, complex sound and really doesn’t seem to take a huge amount of air. I generally play it on several tunes (at our local session) that have A as their lowest note - thus I’m playing an octave below everybody else. It sounds great and one guy claims he doesn’t so much hear it as feel it.
A rather short person at our session was (amazingly) able to cover all the holes, but then she couldn’t get the fipple in her mouth, by about 4-5 inches, due to her short arms!
And as soon as I started practicing this low-low A, playing my low D became MUCH easier!
Neil Brock
PS: Colin is delightful to purchase a whistle from!
(edited in order to spell Goldie correctly)
[ This Message was edited by: nbrock on 2002-04-02 10:15 ]