Chiff and Fipple Forums

I'd love to hear your impressions of this whistle versus the standard Goldie. Well I know there's really no such thing as a "standard" Goldie! But a Goldie medium-blower, if you had such to hand to compare with this short-beak model.

I've sent you a PM, Richard. Come back to me if you have any further questions.

SOLD

Richard,

If you're the new owner-to-be of Mike's custom Goldie, I'd (we'd?) really like to hear your impressions of the whistle when it arrives. I've always appreciated your keen reviews of the whistles that come your way. I've considered requesting a similar instrument from Colin, though he once (well, a few years back) suggested that the sort of low D he regularly supplies Mike McSherry's students with has similar characteristics.

Cheers,
Stephen

I am not.

But I sure would have liked to have spent a few days putting it through its paces!

Cheers to the new owner and may he/she make a lot of great music.

pancelticpiper wrote:I am not.

But I sure would have liked to have spent a few days putting it through its paces!

Cheers to the new owner and may he/she make a lot of great music.

Indeed! Sounds like quite an interesting whistle. Perhaps the new owner will offer some thoughts on it.

Stiofan, I've sent you a PM.

I'm the new owner of this whistle. I'm afraid I can't give you a review as thorough as you'd probably like, as I have no frame of reference or previous experience of Goldie whistles.
I had wanted a Goldie for a good while now and thought this was a good deal, and I must say that I'm not disappointed!

Although I can't compare the whistle to another Goldie, it's still the most comfortable low D that I've tried (I have a Burke Viper and a MK Kelpie). The sound is lovely and the second octave is rather easy to blow, way easier than in both the Burke and the MK, but still not too "chiffy". At first hearing the tuning sounded to be pretty much spot on, but I'll get to more comprehensive investigation one of these days. I have yet to test and compare the two different bodies properly to get a feeling of how they differ, but judging by the one time I've managed to try them, the smaller hole body was easier to play faster tunes with, at least for my fingers.

Maybe someone with a longer history with playing the whistles might think that the whistle should've ended up in someone's possession who can fully understand its qualities in relation to a standard Goldie, but all in all, I'm very pleased to have this whistle as my first Goldie. So far I have a feeling that this will be my no.1 whistle for now!

If you have more questions, I'll do my best to answer.

Glad you like it!

Hooleh wrote:
Although I can't compare the whistle to another Goldie, it's still the most comfortable low D that I've tried (I have a Burke Viper and a MK Kelpie). The sound is lovely and the second octave is rather easy to blow, way easier than in both the Burke and the MK, but still not too "chiffy".

I think having a Goldie, a Burke, and an MK gives you a very good perspective. I've owned those three and they go to show just how different various Low Ds can be.

Interesting to hear that the 2nd octave is easier than the MK, which for me had one of the easier 2nd octaves I've come across, in testing 20 or so makes of Low D. That Goldie must be very light indeed up there! It's something I prize in whistles.

For me, Burkes tend to have rather stiff 2nd octaves.

What about air efficiency? I could hold High B around twice as long on either my MK or Goldie as on my Burke.

Another factor that's important to me is the strength of Bottom D. Burkes have huge booming powerful Bottom D's, the various MKs I had had odd touchy Bottom D's, and my Goldie is about in the middle.

Hooleh - I had an MK Kelpie -it had many good qualities - strong low d, efficient, decent sound but the upper end of the second octave was too loud for me - how do you find the top end of the Goldie compared to the Kelpie ?

First to say that my impressions in my previous post might've been a tad influenced by the hype of having a new whistle, but they had 90% truth to it!

pancelticpiper wrote:Interesting to hear that the 2nd octave is easier than the MK, which for me had one of the easier 2nd octaves I've come across, in testing 20 or so makes of Low D. That Goldie must be very light indeed up there! It's something I prize in whistles.

For me, Burkes tend to have rather stiff 2nd octaves.

What about air efficiency? I could hold High B around twice as long on either my MK or Goldie as on my Burke.

Another factor that's important to me is the strength of Bottom D. Burkes have huge booming powerful Bottom D's, the various MKs I had had odd touchy Bottom D's, and my Goldie is about in the middle.

I think that we were more or less talking about similar things when I talked about the easiness of the second octave and you about air efficiency. Both the Burke Viper and the MK Kelpie that I have are very air efficient in means that I can hold the high notes longer with one breath. They both need a lot of pressure to get the second octave blown, which makes it much harder to blown - almost but not quite too hard for me - than the Goldie I now have. Does that make any sense?

So by that definition the Godlie I now have is less air efficient, but the second octave is still easier to blow. I suppose some of this is subjective, some whistle-specific and some my inability to pay attention to these things to the same extent as you fellows.

retired wrote:Hooleh - I had an MK Kelpie -it had many good qualities - strong low d, efficient, decent sound but the upper end of the second octave was too loud for me - how do you find the top end of the Goldie compared to the Kelpie ?

I would say that on this Goldie the second octave is not so loud as it is in my Kelpie. It's not quiet, either, though. Sounded nice in a small-ish session.