Chiff and Fipple Forums

A brief commercial post here regarding our annual holiday sale.

Through 1.6.20, 10% off Carbony whistles as well as Folk Flutes by Casey Burns, and large discounts on my CDS and Irish music books. For details, see https://greylarsen.com/webstore/holiday-cd-book-sale/ .

I am also selling my 4-CD set “300 Gems of Irish Music for All Instruments” for $4.99 USD, a discount of 75%. The 300 tunes are available for MP3 download as well, for $9.99. This costs less than getting the CDs if you are in Canada, Mexico or outside of North America.

Thank you for your time and indulgence!

greylarsen wrote:A brief commercial post here regarding our annual holiday sale.

Through 1.6.20, 10% off Carbony whistles

Hey Grey,

That's a nice deal and I see you also offer the extra thumbhole option that isn't even on the Carbony site that I can see. Do you do that yourself or special order you have with Carbony?

Also, can you comment on the "in between" keys like B and Ab? How do they compare with the "normal" keys on either side? I'm assuming the same bore size would be used for several keys so they would be comparatively wider or narrower to "ideal"? Or how does that work?

Thanks,
Jim

Regarding the extra thumbholes, you are correct that Carbony does not offer this on their website. However, Rob Gándara, the maker of Carbony instruments, adds these thumbholes for me. They work great - he really knows what he is doing.

As to your question about the "in between" keys and bore sizes, I am now getting accurate information on that from Rob, and will supply that information to you as soon as I have it (soon).

Thanks for your questions.

Here is what Rob Gándara, the maker of Carbony Celtic Winds whistles, has to say regarding your question on the "in between" keys and bore characteristics:

"Our bodies and fipples are characterized over an appropriate range of frequencies and there is overlap, which is why we offer some keys with a choice of bores. The high D whistle comes in a standard and a session bore/fipple combo.

The high B whistle will perform similarly to our high C design.

The mezzo A-flat will perform similarly to our mezzo G design."

I hope this helps to answer your question!

greylarsen wrote:I hope this helps to answer your question!

It does!

The high D comes not only in two but three different bodies and mouthpieces, the "quiet" model, standard and session. It might be possible of course that Rob discontinued the quiet model (it is not that quiet BTW -- about the same volume as a Killarney). I have the quiet and session model with lead tone. They are very different from each other. The quiet model has a lot more chiff and plays like a traditional whistle. The session model is not only louder but has less chiff. They are both really great whistles.

Ah, yes - you are right about there being three forms of the D whistle. The Carbony Quiet D whistle has a very narrow bore and mouthpiece. It is indeed quiet in the low register, but as one works one's up up to A and B in the high register it's volume increases substantially, as seems to be the case with many or most whistles.

I agree that these Carbonies are great whistles. They are the ones I bring to sessions nowadays. I play the Session D at sessions, and also the Mezzo A and G. These two lower whistles are beautiful on certain tunes, and with their lower, mellower voices, they blend in with other instruments in a lovely way. When I play the A and G whistles at sessions I transpose those tunes so that they come out in the right key. I give examples of how to do this in my book "150 Gems of Irish Music for Tin Whistle."

I've searched but can't find the answer.

How in tune is OXXOOO for C natural on these Carbony whistles?

Thank you,
Aldon

I find that fingering to be excellent with Carbonies, and I have played and tried out over 50 of these whistles in various keys. Having this fingering in tune is a very high priority for me in a whistle.

Yep, oxxooo is spot on. Rob said to me, he specifically designed the body that way.