I think the so-called “alto” G is my favorite whistle key. It is low enough to get the “low whistle sound” and high enough to get the “high whistle sound.” With my somewhat large hands, I can play it using fingertips, rather than piper’s grip, and I find that fingertips give me more options for slides and note-bending. It may not be the most useful whistle for session playing, but I’ve never played in a session anyway. I still don’t know enough ITM to jump in.
I have two G whistles: a Guido Gonzato PVC and a Dixon polymer. I picked up the Dixon at the Walton’s shop in Dublin, in July. I was wandering around Dublin, popping into any music shop I saw. They all had a bin of high whistles–usually a mix of Generations and Feadogs. The Walton’s store had, of course, all the Walton’s whistles, and to my surprise they also had a pretty good stock of Dixons, in various keys. And booths to try them out for a while! So I asked for a G, played it for a bit, and bought it for a little over 40 euro.
It’s very interesting to play the Gonzato and Dixon G whistles in succession. I love the Gonzato. It’s very responsive, easy to play right to the top. It has a somewhat reedy sound, which I had never noticed until comparing it with another whistle. The Dixon has, for lack of a better term, a more whistley sound. It has a touch more chiff, too. They are about equal in volume–certainly not loud, but not shy either.
After comparing these two whistles, I have to wonder what other G whistles people recommend. I’ve read C&F long enough to know what sort of recommendations to expect in high D and low D whistles, but G whistles get less commentary.
I think, outside of the old-style wide-bore brass, the low-G is my favorite Burke. It has (as might be expected) a pure sound, which I wouldn’t normally like in a low whistle, but there’s very little sweetness to it. I had a Grinter G that was probably my favorite-ever G whistle. It had a lot of backpressure, very comfortable to hold, and a beautiful raspy sound. I probably play my Water Weasel. It has a good growl to it, but is very sweet, like all the WW’s, and the tone holes are huge, making it hard to play for anyone with small fingers.
The only 2 alto G’s in my whistle basket right now are a PVC one made by Tommy Dion and a peach & walnut one by Mack Hoover. Two distinctly different sounds.
The one alto G that I sold and miss was made by Ronaldo Reyburn, wide-bore brass, maple top. This whistle had a fantastic sound, recorded like a dream … too good to gather dust here. (Playing more strings than whistles now.)
I have had a Dixon Aluminium body and polymer head tuneable Alto ‘G’ for just about 6 months and a Alto G that I made from plastic electric conduit (tweaked with plastic tape). The Dixon is a hard task master, take a lot of breath control, good pure sound when played correctly, medium volume and some chiff. as my technique improves no doubt the results that I get from will also improve, a work in progress. My home made whistle has medium volume, very pure sound, flute like and very easy blower requires little breath, OK for playing solo airs and walzes.
I would recommend the Dixon for an experienced player, not sure about playing in session (due to my lack of expertise) but I have been told that the sound does carry in medium size bars when played with a group of around 6 to 9 other musicians, excluding accordian players.
I haven’t played a ton of G whistles, but my Water Weasel G is one of my alltime favorite whistles, any key, any material..Plays solid yet sweet from lowest to highest notes, easy octave jump. A joy all around.
You’re not alone in this opinion. I was doing a studio gig once and there was a young Irish guy there- either a composer or a sound engineer- and he said the same thing. In his opinion an F whistle was the ideal Irish whistle.
I don’t think using the fingertips gives a person more options, just different ones. When I play a high whistle I use the fingertips of both hands and I half-hole by having the fingertip placed in an offset way so that it’s covering around 2/3 of the hole, and glide by pulling the fingertip off to the side as it’s lifted. On big whistles, and on pipes, I use the middlejoint pads and half-hole and glide by rotating the finger slightly so as to open up the tonehole on the bottom side a bit, the finger still fully across the hole. (It’s hard to put into words, I find!) Both methods work for me, they’re just different. In listening to uilleann pipers, I don’t think one could say that their use of piper’s grip is limiting their ability to bend notes.
Personally, I feel I have more control over notebending when I’m using piper’s grip, but that’s probably simply because I spend almost all of my time on Low D Whistle and the Pipes, and don’t often play High Whistle. It probably all comes down to practice time.
For many years I played a Susato G, one of the early Susatos milled out of PVC stock, with a wooden plug, bought around 1980. It had nice voicing but I feel it had a bore which was a tad too large for its length, making the high notes “shouty” as I call it, a bit loud and harsh and touchy. But overall a nice full loudish whistle. One annoying thing was that it didn’t have a tuning slide and came tuned to around A=444, rather sharp. (About the same time I bought a Susato high D whistle that came tuned a quartertone flat!)
When Susato came out with their new injection moulded whistles I bought a G. It had a narrower bore and had better high notes.
A couple years ago I bought a Burke G and it’s wonderful. Simply perfect in my opinion, that classic old-time Generationlike sound but down in G.
The best G I’ve tried is a blackwood one by- I can’t recall his name at the moment, the guy who made Water Weasel whistles and high-end wooden whistles.
I’ve owned and played quite a few low G whistles. I probably play a G whistle as frequently as a high D. It’s a good key and has just enough of the “low whistle sound”. It is a nice, playable size whistle to boot. I carried a Dixon polymer G with me to work each day for a few years which I liked. I owned/played a Susato G (molded) for several years which was quite a good whistle. That whistle had a smaller RH2 hole than others I’ve examined and it played nicely and sounded really good. My personal favorites remain a Burke and a Water Weasel. The Burke just plays like a dream and the Weasel has tons of character. Others G’s I have played which were really nice include the Copeland and O’Riordan. Both are super whistles. Anyone have an Abell low G? That’s one I’ve not played yet.
That should be a Thin Weasel made by Glenn Schultz.
It seems to me that the available techniques for note-bending with piper’s grip are a proper subset of those available with fingertip grip. That, however, doesn’t imply that note-bending is “harder” with piper’s grip. I feel that I have more control with fingertip grip, but I have absolutely no doubt that that’s just a result of habit. But, given where I am now in whistle-playing, the fact that I can play a G whistle with fingertips, with no discernible strain, is an advantage. And I like the fact that the G easily gives me A dorian, C major, B minor etc. scales. These are pretty handy when playing with guitarists and other musicians.
I’m not shopping for another G at the moment, although no doubt at some point the disease will kick in. The Dixon polymer really is a lovely whistle. Like my brass Dixon Trad high D, it plays sweetly in the 2nd octave, but it has a lot more personality in the first octave than it’s high cousin. Both Dixons have absolutely dead-on tuning, including a few useful cross-fingerings for accidentals.
Ian Parfitt’s comments above make me wonder if there’s much difference between the polymer and aluminum Dixon Gs. I wouldn’t expect much, since I imagine they use the same head, but I don’t find the first octave particularly touchy on my polymer G. I notice this touchiness far more on the Dixon Trad high D.
Possibly the two finest whistles I own are G - an O’riordan Traveler and a Copeland. The O’riordan is just easy to blow and has an angelic balanced tone through two octaves; the Copeland, moreso than any other Copeland or whistle I’ve played, has a bark and a resonance that is truly remarkable and is also well balanced between octaves. Although I currently play daily mostly Sindt, Burke and Busman D whistles, and really love the Susato Bflat and Black Diamond C whistles, these two G whistles are the most extraordinary I’ve ever played.
A friend of mine has a Burke and it’s very good. I have a narrow-bore G from Colin Goldie, one of the first three he made with a smaller bore, and it really is a great whistle. I don’t see a choice of bore sizes for G on his website, so perhaps he’s making them all like that now - are you, Colin?
This discussion has been very interesting and–dare I say it?–edifying.
There’s something interesting that I’ve noticed about my Dixon polymer G. Of all the whistles I own, and all that I’ve played, in any key, it has more consistency of timbre across the octaves than any other. When you go from C or C# to middle D, there’s no discontinuity; nothing to suggest a change of instruments. It’s just one consistent sound all the way up. I have no idea why this should be, but in my experience (which is quite limited, and includes no high-end whistles) it’s unique. Every other whistle I’ve played, including the high D Dixon Trads, sounds like a somewhat different instrument is swapped in when you go to the 2nd octave. I can understand why that happens; I just can’t understand why the Dixon low G avoids it. Or why I have the delusion that it does.
