Kade1301 wrote:
As far as I know, no whistle-like instrument (maybe no wind instrument?) plays in tune over its whole range for every player.
Yes a professional tubist I know said "the perfect wind instrument cannot be made".
And yes the best-tuned wind instrument can be blown out-of-tune!
And a poorly tuned wind instrument can be blown into tune.
Yet after playing dozens of Low D's by a large number of makers I think it's possible to evaluate whistles on their intonation.
What I consider a "perfectly in-tune" Low D is a whistle on which you can play from Bottom D up to B in the 2nd octave (the traditional range of ITM wind instruments) while increasing the pressure as need be to progress up the scale, the increase happening at a natural-feeling steady progression familiar to all flute and whistle players, and each note being needle-straight-up on an electronic tuner.
Low D's I have found to be like that are Goldies and Reyburns. I want my whistles to be like that so that I can use my breath for expression rather than compensating for an out-of-tune scale.
The Burkes I have owned in various sizes (including Low D) have consistently had a tuning quirk where B in the low octave is a hair flat and B in the 2nd octave is a hair sharp. This is of course ideal for playing with uilleann pipes, but not otherwise.
The half-dozen or so MK Low D's I've owned shared a different tuning quirk: Bottom D was flatter than Middle D. The MKs varied in tube length, so that some had in-tune Bottom Ds and sharp Middle Ds, some had flat Bottom Ds and in-tune Middle Ds. But the pitch differential was always present. I ended up preferring the latter, and having to blow Bottom D right to the edge of it breaking to get it up to pitch.
Kade1301 wrote: The two possible solutions are to either search until one finds an instrument that corresponds to one's way of playing, or to learn to play well the one instrument one has.
For sure it's true that if you have a wind instrument with a faulty scale you learn to compensate for it. But as I said I'd rather use changes in breath for expression than compensation.
For somebody like me, who shows up at "legit" gigs with a roll of whistles in every key, and never knows what whistle I will have to grab at a moment's notice, I don't want to have to be forever compensating for a dozen different faulty scales. So all of my whistles play the same, they all have perfectly in-tune scales (as I defined above). Some came that way, but several I've had to modify.
One thing that varies from maker to maker is how the octaves are tuned. You get used to that quickly, and I don't consider it a "flaw" if you have to blow the 2nd octave a bit harder than usual on one whistle and a bit softer than usual on another.
So MK Low Ds have a sharpish 2nd octave that requires the low octave to be strongly blown and the 2nd octave to be a bit under-blown. It's no big deal getting used to it. Some Low Ds have flattish 2nd octaves which is also no big deal. The problem happens when the 2nd octave is so sharp or so flat that you have to play either the 2nd octave or the low octave right on the edge of breaking to play the octaves in tune. That way you don't have "room" on all the notes for expression.
Most good Low Ds have the octaves tuned right down the middle which is where I like it. Goldie, Burke, Reyburn, Reviol, Susato, Alba, the list goes on of Low Whistles with that down the middle octave relationship.
Where tuning is often best revealed is "going over the break". Play low-octave B, C natural, Middle D, and E in the 2nd octave on a steady breath and listen to the tuning. On all my whistles each note is bang-on when I do this.
