I’ve got a Wilson Woods whistle on its way to me (on loan). I found a couple of messages about them in the archives but wondered if anyone else has given one of these a try recently?
Dale said the one he tried “has considerably more wind noise and other undertones than the Abell”, and another reviewer said
“probably somewhat louder and less breathy than the Abell”.
Thanks for any info, and I’ll post my thoughts after I’ve had a chance to try it out.
I guess there aren’t any new owners out there. I may have been the person who said somewhat louder and less breathy than the Abell. I suspect the difference is variations in handmade instruments. Abell is known to make both pure and breathy instruments, and I’ve got a breathy one.
I’ve had the Wilson for a few months now. I still think it’s a remarkable instrument. It’s got one of the richest, most open sounds of any D I’ve played. It can be played pretty gently, but thrives on being played aggressively.
I played a Wilson Wood this evening and was very impressed with it. The sound was what I would expect from a high end instrument, and the mouthpiece was particularly comfortable for me. Easy to go from low to high register, and snappy response. Definitely going on my wish list. One of these days that list is going to get shorter, but its not going to happen soon.
So, Brett, you must’ve had it for a couple of weeks, any comments to share?
Something I’ve just noticed recently about this whistle. We keep it pretty cool in our house (65, often a little cooler in the music room), so, despite pre-warming the whistles, they sometimes clog, esp. if I get a phone call or stir the dinner and don’t keep the whistle under my arm. But the Wilson never shows any sign of clogging, plus often when I’ve finished 20 minutes straight, there’s a line of liquid along the blade and on the outside of the shaft. I’ve never seen that in another whistle.
I ordered one a few months ago based on chas’s recommendation and I thought it was a terrible attempt at copying an Abell. The craftsmanship was not up to par (machined cavities stuck out over the edge of aluminum rings, glue was visible, the curve of the mouthpiece was imperfect, etc.), but I can usually get past that because how it plays is the most important thing. Well, it had a wider bore than the Abell, and this led to the first octave being absolutely full and rich, almost like a gasp recorder, and the second octave not matching the first AT ALL. The second octave was incredibly breathy and unfocused, like the breathy counterpart of the screechy unacceptable second octave of, for example, the old Sweethearts (I have not tried the newly designed Sweetheart). I found the Wilson Woods whistle to be a poor copy of a better, already established whistle, as mentioned above. I returned it for a refund.
Edited for typo correction.
[ This Message was edited by: JessieK on 2003-02-06 11:55 ]
Wow! Jessie, you and I generally have pretty similar tastes in whistles; my Wilson sounds very different from the one you had. I got one of the pretty early ones; I hope yours was an aberration rather than a general downslide in quality (either of which is disturbing).
So, Brett, you must’ve had it for a couple of weeks, any comments to share?
I only ended up keeping the Wilson for about a week and decided I really didn’t care much for it:
-not very loud
-very ‘closed’ sound
-too much back pressure for me (made me light headed)
-not very ‘finished’ looking (similar to JessieK’s comments)
-felt big and bulky compared to Abell
It wouldn’t be a bad whistle if it were in the $75-$100 range.
-Brett
[ This Message was edited by: bretton on 2003-02-07 13:44 ]