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Chris Wall Soprano D Whistle Thoughts/Review

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 4:54 pm
by AngelicBeaver
I purchased a Chris Wall Soprano D whistle a few weeks ago. It's a fantastic little whistle. The first octave resonates and vibrates the body as you play. The second octave is sweet and smooth. Unlike the A whistle, there are no touchy breath requirements for it. It breaks where it should. It's one of the few whistles where you start to play it and want to keep playing, just because it's fun. The tone is excellent. My personal thing about Soprano D whistles is the second octave B tends to be too loud and piercing. The one fault I can find in this whistle is that it doesn't fully overcome that, but it is better than all Soprano D whistles I've ever played save the Clarke Sweetone, and the rest of its playing characteristics makes up for that one shortcoming.

If you're interested, I played around with it for a while in a dark tunnel, at night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ_eXua ... ture=share

Chris has a really good deal on these at the moment on ebay. He's got the Soprano D listed at $25, which I think is a steal. I just bought a D and F set from him, out of shear curiosity. These are his "session bore" whistles, so they shouldn't be quite so particular about the blowing requirements.

Re: Chris Wall Soprano D Whistle Thoughts/Review

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 10:29 am
by whistle1000
Very interesting acoustics in that tunnel...sounds great!

Re: Chris Wall Soprano D Whistle Thoughts/Review

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 8:06 am
by saintninian
Thanks for the tips! I ordered a D whistle from Chris on the strength of your review; hope to get it next week or thereabouts. I had previously ordered a C from him, and had the same problem you had with your A. I tried the fix you showed on you tube, and it worked. I had almost given up on it, but now I have a playable whistle. Any suggestions on how to make the temporary fix permanent?

Re: Chris Wall Soprano D Whistle Thoughts/Review

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 9:31 am
by AngelicBeaver
saintninian wrote:Thanks for the tips! I ordered a D whistle from Chris on the strength of your review; hope to get it next week or thereabouts. I had previously ordered a C from him, and had the same problem you had with your A. I tried the fix you showed on you tube, and it worked. I had almost given up on it, but now I have a playable whistle. Any suggestions on how to make the temporary fix permanent?
Chris modified the soprano D whistle for me after my feedback on the low A, and he said that he's using that head design now for the others, so hopefully yours will turn out as nice as mine did. I've got two more whistles on order from him (Low F and D), and he says he's going to try the same thing. It will be interesting to see how they turn out.

As for the low A modification, I had a flat piece of PVC from some sort of trim thing I'd gotten for another project. I cut three squares out, sanded them down to fit, tested them by attaching them with a little sticky-tac, sanded them a little more, and then epoxied them into place. Getting the curve to fit the whistle on the top piece, and then getting their corners into place were the two most difficult things to do. It turned out well enough. NOTE: This fix seems to flatten the pitch a little, so it works fine as a solo, mess-around instrument, but if I needed it to play with others, I'd probably need to make a tuning slide for it or something. I don't know if the soprano C would be as affected, but it's something to be aware of.

Here's my video of the permanent fix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gOg0vlJzp4

Re: Chris Wall Soprano D Whistle Thoughts/Review

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:33 am
by dodoworld
AngelicBeaver wrote:... It will be interesting to see how they turn out.
I would be interested in learning if there has been any news on this in the meantime. Judging from your two videos (which are always very nice and helpful, so thanks a lot for them), I also felt that the A you later modded was not so much my cup of tea, while the D sounded very, very sweet.

This is quite an interesting topic for me... while I really love my low whistles, my soprano and mezzo experiences have been - well, let's say challenging so far. I was wondering if there are any further experiences with different keys by Chris you might want to share?

Re: Chris Wall Soprano D Whistle Thoughts/Review

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:28 pm
by AngelicBeaver
Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication, and Chris modified the designs to eliminate all the backpressure, and I really like backpressure in my whistles. It's like ordering something with extra tomatoes and getting it with no tomatoes. I was disappointed and returned them. I feel like I overcomplicated things and frustrated Chris in the process. That being said, I don't know how a stock Chris Wall low F or D plays. It would be nice to visit him in the shop and eliminate the issue of nebulous whistle characteristic vocabulary. He was really cool for trying all the things he did.

Re: Chris Wall Soprano D Whistle Thoughts/Review

Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:28 am
by dodoworld
I understand. These things can be so tricky, and it must be some of the hardest part in a whistle maker's life trying to adapt to everybody's such highly individual needs, ideas and playing styles.

Maybe I'll still give the soprano D by Chris a try. It's sounds so mellow and smooth in your video - something I have been struggling with for quite a while when it comes to sopranos. Actually, I am still looking for one which I really like...

Re: Chris Wall Soprano D Whistle Thoughts/Review

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 7:33 am
by Chris Wall
Nathaniel, I'm sorry if I gave the impression that I was frustrated with you personally. I was really just frustrated to realize we were miscommunicating on your desires, but I always appreciated your feedback. For me it was like having wonderful organic heirloom tomatoes available for a dish, but not adding them and then wishing I had when I realized your distaste for what was served. Tomato parables on the whistle forum, good tastes! And if you ever find yourself on this side of the country, I'd be happy to have you in my shop to make one that fits you perfectly. Also, my original offer still stands for you to be one of the first to try a new line I'm working on. Probably going to send one of these on a tour when I feel the design is ready.

And Dodoworld, I hope you'll give my whistles a shot. My whistles have a distinct personality and unique design. I have a Soprano D auction up now, but if you miss out on that one I'd be happy to talk about making a custom one for you.

Re: Chris Wall Soprano D Whistle Thoughts/Review

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 8:37 pm
by MichaelRS
[Thread revival. - Mod]

Hey, Chris, have you ever thought about making a YouTube video tour of your shop? You can make one long video or several short ones devoted to each subject, like just whistles and then flutes and whatever else and you can show how you make them and demonstrated for the models.
I know several of the top bagpipe manufacturers who did that sort of thing but I just never seen it done for anybody does whistles. Well, I take that back, I think I've seen some independent Craftsman such as yourself do it. But I think it would be a great introduction for people to the Chris Wall whistles.
Just a thought.
Best