The second reservation I had was an odd discoloration on the fipple block


I noticed this immediately. I was concerned that there was something stuck on the fipple, but it doesn't feel like it. It just appears to be an odd discoloration. I've since found out later that this was a decoration. At the time I had this whistle, Stacey was experimenting with putting decorations on the fipple, and has since perfected the technique. The tuning slide, as I previously mentioned, incorporates teflon tape in it's construction.


The teflon appears well-attached. It never came loose in all the times I adjusted the tuning on this whistle. It also appears to be somewhat counter-sunk into the whistle slide. I'm guessing it's here to help mitigate some of the metal-on-metal feel, and prevent any air leaks. I did not lubricate the slide (since it wasn't my whistle) and there is a little 'metal on metal' feel but it is only slightly noticeable. For a whistle of this price, I think I would have preferred O-rings, cork, or some other tuning slide mechanisim, but the teflon seems to work. The whistle is slightly sharp when the slide is all the way in, exactly as it should be.

Volume: This whistle is loud loud LOUD. I originally thought it wasn't as loud as my Copeland. I was wrong. I was way under-blowing this whistle, and when given it's full head, is easily the loudest whistle I've blown. It *can* be blown softer, but when given the breath pressure required to bring everything into tune, it's a heck of a loud whistle. It'd be great for outdoors play, but may be even too loud except for really rowdy sessions. It's certainly too loud for inside my house, and I didn't really hear this whistle's full voice until I had it outside. At the sessions I took it to, I sat right next to the accordion player, and he didn't drown me out. When I recorded this whistle, I lowered the microphone input balance to half-way--the first time I've ever done that for a whistle--if that gives any indication to it's volume.

Responsiveness: This whistle is not as responsive as some of the other high-end whistles I own, such as my Busman or my Copeland. The ornaments don't seem to leap out at me as crisply as on my more-responsive instruments. I would reserve another whistle for my fast playing.

Tuning: The instrument, when blown with the proper breath control, is in tune. I originally thought the 2nd octave was quite flat when I first fiddled around with it, until I got it outside and realized I was just blowing way under the whistle's breath requirements. My only tuning complaints are that two notes require noticeably lower breath requirements than the rest of the whistle. To breathe the first octave D in tune, you have to blow it much softer than any other note on the whistle. When blown at comparable pressures, the note can be around 30% of the way to Eb. The first octave B didn't require as drastic breathing adjustment, but still must be blown softer than the surrounding notes to fall into tune. All of the other notes only required very subtle breathing adjustments to bring in line.

C-natural: OXXOOO produces a strong in-tune C-natural. For those who use different fingerings, dropping any other fingers (OXXXOO for instance) flattens the note beyond acceptable levels. OXOOOO (which i use on one or two fast tunes as a shortcut) makes a C-Natural about 15 cents sharp of true.

Hole size and placement: This whistle has holes on the smallish size, which I hear is good for small hands. I've never had problems sealing any whistle though except my Susato low G, so I can't really compare for you. The holes seem to be well-spaced, and I don't find any particular crowding or stretching required to play comfortably.

Air volume requirements: Average. This whistle allows you to get a decent amount of music out of it between breaths (unlike my Copeland, for instance, which requires a great deal more breathing).

Air pressure requirements: Very high. It seems to be true of most loud whistles I own that they require either lots of breath, or lots of pressure, or both. As you move up the scales on this whistle, the breath pressure requirements ramp up considerably. As noted in "tuning" above, I originally thought this whistle played flat, until I realized that I was just under the breath pressure requirements. At the top of it's range, you really have to be aggressive. The upper-half of the second octave can be compared to my Chieftain soprano D. For me personally, this is my biggest complaint. I prefer more easy-blowing whistles in the second octave. (For those who've known me for a while from C&F, you'll recall I sold my soprano Chieftain for this exact reason, and it's also the reason I didn't buy a Sweetheart until he retooled the product line). However, that's a personal preference. There are many folks who like to put a lot of umph into their playing, and this whistle will fit them perfectly.

Clogging: Ok, lastly, the whistle, like most whistles I own, tends to play a bit 'wet'. I attribute a lot of that to Houston humidity, and maybe some to me being a wet player. This particular whistle is no exception, but tends to clear itself pretty quickly as I'm playing, probably because I'm already blowing pretty hard through it, which forces the condensation to blow out on it's own accord--not to imply that I'm blowing as hard as I would if I were clearing the whistle. Most every whistle I own has what I call its 'saturation point'. That's how long I can play the whistle at a gig before it clearing it between tunes is no longer enough, and I have to switch to a fresh whistle. Most of my metal whistles saturate at about half-way through a four-hour gig. My PVC silkstone lasts most of a gig. I haven't found a single whistle that'd last an entire gig. I haven't played this whistle until it's saturated, however, as I wish to save the owner the grossness of contemplating what that would mean when he gets it back. :)