Elfsong Sassy Brass Soprano D whistle Review
(Review written January 2006)
- Preface
- I've been intrigued by Sandy Jasper's whistles for a while. She makes whistles in all kinds of neat colors, with copper (Copper Tone) or brass (Sassy Brass) mouthpieces. I don't see these come up for sale or trade secondhand very often, so I was lucky to pick one up recently.
- At a Glance
- Whistle Reviewed
- Elfsong Sassy Brass Soprano D whistle
- Models Available
- Copper or Brass mouthpieces in a variety of keys
- How Acquired
- recieved secondhand
- Construction
- all metal with a wooden fipple
- Price at Time of Review (in US Dollars unless otherwise noted)
- $75.00
- Available From
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West Coast Whistle Company
- Appearance
- This is a very neat-looking whistle. The body is copper, but painted inside and out, with a copper sleeve for a tuning slide. The mouthpiece is brass, this being a Sassy Brass model. It's a hefty whistle in the hands, as most copper whistles are. The one I got is the "Starry Night" pattern, which actually reminds me a lot of the nail polish paint job the previous owner did on my Serpent Sweet Polly whistle. Looking at Sandy's website, I think the Black Marble color scheme is my favorite.
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Here's the full whistle.
Here's a close-up of the mouthpiece. The labium ramp is nicely pressed, and you can see a shot of the Elfsong logo and tuning slide, too. The slide is a little short, which means that you can only adjust the whistle about 1/3 inch before it starts getting wobbly and leaks air.
Here's another angle on the mouthpiece, showing the fipple area. Coincidentally, this is also a lot like the Serpent Sweet Polly, in that it has a long beak. In fact, they're shaped pretty darn similarly. The fipple is held in place with three very small pins, the entire construction is very professional looking.
A shot at the end of the whistle, showing the last three holes. This is also a pretty good shot of the Starry Night pattern.
- Playing Characteristics
- Very loud and brash with a slight hiss throughout. The second octave takes a fair amount of push, and the hiss increases, but not by much. There are tuning issues.
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Sound clips of the whistle:
Flowers of EdinburghVolume: Louder than average. The first octave is about as loud as my Copeland (unless you want to play it in tune..then it's the quietest whistle I own..see below). The second octave is a fair amount louder than the Copeland.
Responsiveness: Fairly responsive. No problems there at all, though I find myself less nimble tonguing rapidly on whitles that require higher backpressue. That's my failing, more than anything.
Tuning: Out of tune, both with itself and with others. The first octave on this whistle is 30 cents sharp when I have the tuning slide pulled out as far as I can pull it without it getting loose and wobbly. The second octave starts out in tune, but flattens as you go up the scale, until the high A and B are about 30 cents flat. This makes it fairly impossible to use this whistle with others. If I way underblow the the instrument in the first octave, so that it's barely playing and the volume is way down, I can bring it into tune, but this doesn't seem a very realistic solution to me, since the volume disparity between octaves becomes immense.
C-natural: like the rest of the instrument in the first octave, OXXOOO is sharp, by about 35 cents. OXXXOX brings it into tune, but then you're out of tune with the rest of the whistle.
Hole size and placement: The holes are nicely sized and fairly evenly spaced along the whistle. The F# hole is smallish compared to the rest, and none of the holes are especially over-large.
Air volume requirements: Higher than average. I find myself running out of breath a little sooner on the whistle.
Air pressure requirements: Higher than average in the second octave. It takes a bit of push to keep things square up there, especially once you get up to high G, A and B.
Clogging: On cold mornings, I found this whistle clogging after about 15 minutes. Just standard clogging behavior: the whistle would feel a little more backpressure and slowly cut out. Blowing the whistle out was fine. When in a warmer environment, I had no clogging problems at all. I probably wouldn't bother with Duponol on this whistle.
Wind Resistance: Moderate. Holds up to a decent beeze, and you can sort of push it in even a heavier wind.
- Summary
- Nice looking whistle, but the tuning problems make it unlikely that I'll play this whistle much. I prefer a quieter whistle when playing alone or learning, and I really can't use this whistle with other musicians.