Yuri asked for honest assessment, so here goes, just with the caveat that what I say can only definitely be applied to the specific examples I trialled. However, going on the reviews already posted and on the physical construction of the instruments, I suspect that they will all be similar, though with the variability one expects of handmade artefacts, especially in organic materials.
In my opinion, as they are now, these whistles are not saleable and are barely playable. That very bald, negative statement needs (and will get below) substantial explanation and justification, but it also needs very firm qualification: these attractive whistles are also, I think, not far off being potentially very good. The general workmanship is fine – Yuri’s craft skills are evidently excellent – and there are some aspects of how the whistles play that suggest to me they are in most respects well designed and ought to be able to be refined and made at the very least decently usable and competitive.
Yuri explained to me that he made these instruments some time ago and that, despite being aware of issues with how they played, he had sold a few to folk who tried them and liked their idiosyncracies. He also says that as he is not a whistle player, let alone for ITM, he doesn’t know what “we” might like/require in a whistle. That, however, does not adequately explain to me the basic problems the examples I’ve tried evince – presently they simply don’t work properly as musical instruments for any genre of music or any taste in sound and response. They are unduly hard work to get playing even halfway decently and are unreliable.
The crippling problems I found are, I believe, all to do with “voicing” – the finishing touches of the tone-holes, bores and most especially the sound generating parts (fipple-plug, windway, window, labium). I will return to these details after describing how each whistle played for me.
The low D whistle although quite chunky, is light for its bulk and is comfortable and pleasing to hold. I found the span and locations of the tone holes very comfortable. Unfortunately, it has a strange loud buzz in its sound throughout the main two octaves, though worst at the low and high extremes. I actually looked for something loose that might be vibrating – as have a couple of other people who have tried it. Underlying the kazoo-like buzz in its sound there seems to be quite a pleasant, round and open, reasonably strong tone, but it is obscured by “fuzz”! It has medium air requirements (not as strangled as Overton type whistles tend to be, but less free blowing than I like) but has to be pushed very hard to get the higher end of the second octave, making it harsh there on top of the buzz. It does not flip between octaves (slurred 8ves particularly – one of the things I do to test a whistle) or over wide intervals at all easily or happily and therefore lacks agility. The intonation and evenness of notes in a scale seems pretty good – against a tuner better than many whistles I’ve tried, save for the inevitable problems of intonation that ensue from the difficulty with pressure to reach the higher notes. It simply will not go into the 3rd 8ve – even high D is recalcitrant to unattainable. Playing in the 3rd 8ve is not, of course, a normal requirement of a whistle, but every low whistle (and most high ones) I have ever played which I would term “good” in other respects will, of the nature of their “goodness”, go up to 3rd 8ve G or even A quite well, although not specifically designed to do so. Given the blowing and tone problems, it is difficult to assess the instrument’s volume, but I felt it would, suitably improved, make quite a strong and reasonably loud sound.
The high D whistle works somewhat better than the low one, though largely sharing the same characteristics. It has no nasty buzz and is quite sweet through its middle range, though there is perhaps an “edge” in the tone that isn’t quite right. The bell note is weak compared to the rest and cannot be pushed to resonance, and the top of the 2nd 8ve is almost as hard to get as on its big brother, sounding harsh and squawky. It has to be pushed quite hard to stay in the 2nd 8ve generally and the sound is not clear or even through the scale in that 8ve. As with the low version, wide interval jumps and slurred octaves are weak and unreliable. With practice/familiarity and extreme attention to tailoring breath pressure to every note, I think it can be played quite well and sound fairly good, but it requires far more effort to do so than should be needed in any instrument earning the description “good”. As is and ignoring the defects, it is what I would describe as medium volume – frustrating to me as IMO a good instrument should easily be loud, but capable of good response when played softly (and tuned sharper to allow for going flat used thus).
(Aside: I’ve never understood why anyone would want a “quiet” whistle! The stronger and louder the better – you can always back off and adjust or even mute when quietness is required, but you can’t get a “quiet” whistle to give what you need in company/performance!)
I made a demo video exploring the two whistles which for upload limit reasons I had to split into two parts - these can be seen in these links:
YT Whistles demo Part 1
YT Whistles demo Part 2
I think both whistles actually come over better on the video than they feel or sound live. The difficulties of breath pressure control and adjustment I’m having aren’t really fully apparent to the viewer. Also, prior to making the clips, I had found that as I played them and they warmed and damped up, on some occasions they almost stopped working completely – presumably due to swelling of parts in the mouth-piece. I expected this to happen when making the clips and so played them cold/dry first – and it didn’t recur! Sod’s law! I still think it may be an issue.
Which brings me to some detailed attention to the finishing of these whistles.
Firstly, the bores, especially of the low one, are rather rough. I don’t think this is the cause of the buzz, but certainly both whistles would benefit from having a much smoother or even polished bore surface. Given the exterior finish, that can clearly be attained.
I couldn’t usefully photograph the bores, so these shots of the tenons and sockets won’t show that roughness, but they do show the chunky but well made construction; the foot ends are also shown:
Similarly, the tone hole inner edges (junction with bore) have not been rounded off – and that is a well known technique to improve smoothness of response. The high whistle as shown here has very sharp corners and even a bit of uncleaned off drill-splintering. On the low whistle we can see some very pronounced (and skilful) undercutting – quite extreme on some of the holes – doubtless assisting their comfortable positioning as well as the fundamentally good tuning. However, one can see individual knife or chisel cuts – there has been no clean-up sanding smooth.
The beaks, recorder style, are quite chunky but perfectly comfortable in the lips. A little more streamlining would be preferable, but isn’t a big issue. The wood of the fipple blocks seems to have rather distinct harder (dark) and softer (light) grain alternations and one can feel slight ridging against the lower lip – which I thought seemed to increase with moisture absorption……
… which I suspect may be an issue in the windway….. As can be seen, the windway floors of both whistles are not part of the main fipple but are inserts with closer grain than the main block (but apparently the same timber?). Perhaps Yuri can tell us the reason for this? I would guess that perhaps initial attempts at voicing went awry (overcut?) and he pulled the plugs and fitted new tops to them – or that the ridge swelling effect interfered with the air flow and he decided to use finer grained inserts to improve that? Whatever, I suspect there is still a problem with moisture affecting the windway floor and causing swelling, either in grain ridges or generally, which makes the whistles increasingly hard to play as they get more hydrated. It may well be the choice of timber for the plugs is inappropriate? I know Jon Swayne uses something called “pencil cedar” which seems very stable.
High D
Low D
The windows and labia/ramps are well enough cut and finished, though there are some slightly off true/straight lines – and Yuri’s logo brands are not perfectly on the centre lines either. I don’t have sufficient whistle manufacture expertise to comment on the dimensions of the windows, but given the voicing problems, I do wonder whether they are too narrow laterally or too long or short longitudinally. There is also very little edge chamfer on the window end of the fipple or the upper edge of the windway – more variables for tweaking.
What I am more confident of but cannot illustrate is that I think the labia blade edges are too nearly exactly in line/level with the windway floor. On nearly all the whistles and recorders I have examined which work well, regardless of whether they have flat or curved windways, (these are slightly curved, but not as much as the bore), if one looks in along the windway floor and gets one’s line of sight exactly along it, the labium blade is always just a small amount clear above it. In the small amount of experimenting I have done with fipple flute making, I learned that getting enough (but not too much) clearance to split the airstream cleanly and in the right proportions is vital. In these whistles, even when the plug is dry, there is barely any visible clearance and it is not equal across the arc – there are even places where the labium edge is below the sight-line. That, I suspect, is the fundamental problem causing buzzes, harshness, difficulty of blowing and poor, uneven responsiveness. All the other previously mentioned matters could be improved and don’t help, but this is the key thing. (I also note, though it isn’t an essential, that there is no attempt to use the Bernoulli effect by having the windway wider/deeper at the input end, tapering towards the window.) Add to that as-made lack of clearance the suspected ridging or general swelling with moisture of the windway floor…… and no wonder that, after warming up a bit and improving as any whistle tends to, these whistles then “go off” with sustained playing!
I gave my main verdict at the beginning of this review, but, as I commented on the video clips, I genuinely think I can hear and feel in these whistles an underlying strong, rich, mellow sound and they are aesthetically pleasing artefacts to look at and handle. If Yuri can address the voicing problems, there is much about his whistles that I think promises well for future developments. I don’t think he needs to go back to the drawing board, but to learn finesse. Talking to other experienced timber whistle and recorder makers (if he doesn’t already) might be useful. I don’t think the plea that he doesn’t play this kind of instrument himself or this or that kind of music on them is a let-off: testing any wind instrument by playing scales, arpeggios, slurred octaves and other intervals is all it takes to test response (with, of course, a good ear!). Worrying about how it will play ITM style techniques should only be a secondary consideration, and one that probably wouldn’t need specific attention or tailoring. If the whistle works well in general, it’ll work well for ITM. One could not satisfactorily play the Mediaeval or Renaissance music that Yuri says is his main genre on these whistles as they are now.
Thanks very much for being brave enough to put your whistles out for review, Yuri, and to insist on honest comments. I’m genuinely sorry to be so hard on them as I really wanted to like them. I do think that, if you want to, you can progress to making something well above average for sound and playability, but you have not yet, on the evidence of these two examples, found all of the way to that objective. It may be that given the inconsistencies of wood and of hand manufacture, some of your other examples already work much better than these two do. Whether or not that is so, I think that if you seriously want to go further with these you need to trust your own evaluative skills more. Sure, the feedback you are now getting may be very helpful in guiding your next steps, but I feel you have “put out” a bit early, when your own instincts and self-criticism should have told you things weren’t yet good or consistent enough. If I were working in this field, I would not have been happy to let those instruments out of the workshop, even to get advice on improving them. Moreover, if you do sell them as they are now, you will probably get a lot of returns and a negative reputation that will be difficult to rectify in due course. Get them back after the tour, tidy them up and experiment with revoicing them. I’m sure you can use your obvious craft abilities to make the necessary improvements. I sincerely hope neither you nor other readers will interpret this as a trashing – that is not my opinion nor intent.
Very best wishes for a stunning YT Whistle #2 in due course!
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