Great picture! So the stainless steel on top just touches inside the upper lip?

yup

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Does someone have a link to the pictures of different woods used in the Abell whistle? It's not on his website. I did email Chris to ask about this as well.

That is a great pic of Wanderer and Mary Bergin. Playing the whistle resting beak on the lower lip is standard for all my whistle playing and holding straight out front. Yes, Abell whistles have the short beak, but, look at Mary Bergin's whistle with the longer beak and she too rests the whistle beak on the lower lip. I'm sure there might be occasions when the thrill of playing moves the whistle beak inserted a bit further into mouth, but, the tip and straight on works best for me. YMMV

I like responsive freeblowing whistles, and Burkes are a tad stiff for my liking.

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Richard Cook
1978 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle

That, or walking into a door...

Best wishes.

Steve

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Well I pulled the trigger and I have emailed Chris about putting me on the waiting list for an Abell D Whistle in African Blackwood. I have been corresponding with him the last few days and decided to get one. I'll probably call him today to confirm he got it.

I asked for the D. I didn't say "Standard D." I hope he understands I want the standard D not a low D. Does he even offer a low D?

I called and he told me he doesn't make a low D and I confirmed I wanted the regular D tin whistle haha.

Now the wait....

I will point out that, at least with Low Whistles, where you place the beak can affect the internal tuning.

I, too, tend to play whistles with my lips on the very end of the mouthpiece.

But with some Low Whistles I noticed that the one-finger note (B or its equivalent) was flat, and putting the mouthpiece further in the mouth, so that the lower lip is right up against the cutaway on the bottom side, corrected the flat B.

In other words a whistlemaker is tuning his whistles so they play in tune when he/she plays them, and if you play it differently it might not be in tune.

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Richard Cook
1978 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle

Sorry I'm a bit late to the party. I'll throw in some late comments, possibly prejudicial to somebody.

I think that Busman, Milligan, McManus & Abell D whistles are all of good quality. Of the ones I've owned, the latter 3 had better quality wood selection & machining. The Abells (I've gone through 2 in blackwood & 1 in Delrin) were the most consistent in voicing, although still minor differences between them. McManus & Abell sound almost identical to me in tone. I sold my 2 blackwood Abells & have kept the Delrin. They sounded the same & I wanted the easy care. Still, I do not like the short beak (pretty sure all the fittings are sterling BTW, not stainless) on the Abell. I believe the Busman also had a short beak (not as short as the Abell), and I had Jon Cornia scoop the back out a little more for me. Sold it as I felt the others are better made.

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Does your next whistle have to be wood? For a relatively affordable option you might consider a Killarney. I like mine as well as my Sindt brass and Burke aluminum high D's.

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I also think the killarney whistles hit a sweet spot between traditional sound, cost, ease of playing and quality control.

In general I dislike fussing too much with instruments and tend to treat them as tools. I like whistles I can keep in the door pocket of the car or throw in a bag or pocket with minimal worry

But certainly the value of hand made, beautiful objects is a real thing and a source of pleasure, so why not?

I apologize for the delay. I have a Burke D in Brass currently and it is a good whistle. That's what I practice on every day. I just wanted to add a wooden whistle to my collection. Plus, the Abell seems to be of high quality. I'm not against a Killarney and probably will get one in the future.

From the viewpoint that the Generation or Clark represent the original or "standard" tin whistles, I'd say the Abell and Busman whistles diverge significantly. In my (very subjective, grouchy) opinion, both are loud bordering on inappropriate for a mid-sized session of around 7 people. I have rarely, if ever, seen a highly competent player play one at an Irish session (although a few great players use them for concerts), and I think the reason is due to backpressure.

They're just hard to blow, and the differential between the low notes and high notes is extremely wide, leading to squawking at some note transitions as the airstream changes speed. Is it possible to play these instruments with the grace and speed associated with Irish traditional whistle? Usually. Is it an enjoyable experience? For me, no (and I think for many others as well). Wooden whistles in lower keys, however, (A downward) are often highly playable and very useful. If you just want a wooden whistle, why not consider one of them?

There are few absolutes in life, so I'm sure there are strong players who do prefer wooden high D whistles, but (perhaps tellingly) when a new face comes to my session and pulls out a wooden whistle, my first thought is, "Oh sh*t."

About a decade ago we had visits from a musicologist doing field work for a book she was working on. She had an Abell, which she thought the bee's knees. Problem was, the whistle was, as you say, very loud and she just wasn't used blowing it and for that reason played her octaves extremely out of tune. But ofcourse she was the one with the most expensive whistle so when things sounded horrible, the rest of the company got the dirty looks (from her). Two years later she returned and had settled into playing the thing and played it in tune but was still obnoxiously loud.

Something similar could be said about an old local whistleplayer who had emigrated from here to the US during the late forties. His local comhaltas branch over there gave him an Abell to record him with (some fifteen years ago). The results were not very nice at all. Octave transitions were a struggle, tone and volume didn't suit his music at all. He did well on the Generation and the flute though.



There are a few people who can make them work, playing on their own. But in my experience the majority of wooden whisltes I get to hear have an edge to their tone that for some reason makes them unable to blend with other instruments. I was at a concert a few weeks ago where someone played a wooden D, the player could play but the sound of it was just obnoxious.

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