A new year, a new time, and some new directions for everyone - including Oz Whistles:
Firstly,
I will be making more of the "Visor" model for standard offering from my website.
The Visor is almost exactly the same design as the Vambrace, but is made using acetal resin (Delrin) instead of wood.
This does not require the metal binding ligatures at the wood margins - and so, costs less to make.
Since the acetal is cut and carved exactly as the wood, it is still hand-made with all the practical features found in the Vambrace.
In my experience, Delrin has a slightly different timbre - as do the various species of wood.
But these differences were always slight.
For now, I will be making them standard in D with a bronze mouthpiece.
Custom options can be requested via the website (or by PM here) - such as silver mouthpiece and other keys (B, C, C#, Eb).
The standard Visor whistle is priced at $350 Australian dollars.
This price includes a carry-case (whistle-crate).
Here's a picture of one completed today:
Secondly,
many of the fine tonewoods we use have now entered the CITES appendix II list of endangered species. This includes African blackwood and cocobolo.
For this reason, we will be increasingly asked for permits to export and/or import these things.
Such permits can be quite expensive.
The best way I can handle this will be to include the cost of obtaining permits (at my end) on build quotes.
In the mean time, there is no restriction on Gidgee wood or Acetal resin.
Over the next few weeks, I will update my website to introduce the delrin Vambrace as a standard offering in addition to the new Visor model.
Another model, the "Gauntlet", will appear in the next few weeks.
I will post on that when I have some examples to offer,
(P.S. from time to time, I get asked what the oZ logo is all about - it's an abstract picture of a blackbird singing.)
So stay tuned - and, more important, play tunes!
